Engines Will Be Installed On Test Aircraft
Aero-News has learned
the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) granted airworthiness
certification on December 29, 2005 to the Engine Alliance GP7200
engine, the leading powerplant for the Airbus A380.
"We put the GP7200 through as tough a test regime as any engine
has ever faced," said Bruce Hughes, Engine Alliance president.
"Even though the engine will be used on the four-engine A380, we
tested and certified it to the same standards required for large
twin-engine aircraft in ETOPS (Extended-Range Twin Engine
Operations)."
The FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation) Part 33 certification
follows an extensive ground and flight-test program that involved
eight engines over 21 months. During its development and
certification program the GP7200 ran some 7,000 cycles, 25
full-scale engine certification tests and more than 50 component
tests, and powered two flight-test programs on a flying test
bed.
The engine is initially certified at 76,500 pounds of thrust,
and has the capability to produce over 81,500 pounds with the same
bill of material. During its certification program, the GP7200 was
tested at thrust levels in excess of 94,000 pounds.
"This has been an outstanding team effort by the Engine
Alliance, its parent companies GE and Pratt & Whitney, and its
partners, MTU, Snecma and TechSpace Aero," added Hughes. "Now we
are ready to get on with flight-testing and certification on the
A380."
As was reported in Aero-News,
the Engine Alliance -- a 50/50 joint venture of General Electric
and Pratt & Whitney -- delivered four flight-test engines to
Airbus in September that will soon be installed on an A380
flight-test aircraft. First flight will take place later this year
with entry into service at Emirates in 2007.
The GP7200 is derived
from two successful engines, the GE90 and the PW4000, incorporating
all the lessons learned from millions of flight hours and
benefiting from the two programs' latest, proven technologies. With
the GP7200, the A380 will meet Stage 4 noise regulations and QC2
departure noise rules, and its emissions are well below current and
anticipated regulations.
The GP7200 holds the market share lead with 55% of announced
firm engine orders for the A380.
In addition to Emirates, which has purchased or leased a total
of 45 A380s, other Engine Alliance customers include Air France,
FedEx, Korean Air and International Lease Finance Corporation.