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CFM56 at the Ready
As the prospect of a Boeing 737/A320 replacement casts its influence on strategic thinking, CFM International is developing technology to be ready for a new engine — and is reapplying it wherever possible to the present family of CFM56 powerplants.
The CFM56 is the world’s best selling turbofan, powering all Boeing 737s (except the very early models) and winning a 50%+ share on the A320 family of narrowbody airliners. In the next few weeks CFMI will deliver the 15,000th engine since the program began.
“For us this is a very extensive year of testing new technology,” said technology vp Bill Clapper, as CFMI validates a host of improvements in efficiency, reliability and lower noise and emissions that will become the production standard in all engines in the first half of 2007. A series of retrofit kits will also be available for existing users as a midlife upgrade to their –5B (A320 family) and –7B (Boeing 737) engine models.
CFMI parents GE Aircraft Engines and Snecma set up a team late last year to study technologies for an engine for the A320/737 replacement, both drawing on and adding to the ‘technology warehouse’ developed in the Tech56 program. It is too early to consider what a new powerplant might look like, said Clapper, and its definition depends on Airbus and Boeing if, indeed, they decide to go ahead with new narrowbody aircraft for entry into service around 2012-14. But today’s buzzwords of efficiency, productivity (reliability, low cost of ownership and time on-wing), low noise and emissions and more electrics will all undoubtedly apply. Remote diagnostics and information technology will play an increasingly important role, he added. Technologies will likely include counter-rotating high- and low-pressure turbines.
“So our focus over the next several years is on developing technology and materials, and technology maturation, and then how to put it all together into the optimum system. We’re thinking very hard on that,” he explained. —John Morris
CFM International will refresh its CFM56-5 and –7 engines in the first half of 2007 with a production build upgrade incorporating several new technologies.
A series of technology insertion retrofit kits will also be made available to customers as they overhaul their existing engines.
The new technologies will reduce overall operating costs through lower maintenance costs, longer time-on-wing, lower fuel consumption, and reduced airport taxes from lower NOx (nitrogen oxides) emissions.
The improvements include:
• New high-pressure compressor blades using advanced aerodynamic analysis and design methods developed as part of Project Tech56. This design improves efficiency and decreases deterioration by reducing sensitivity to open clearances.
• Improved the cooling in the current single-annular combustor in order to reduce NOx emissions, providing margin to the CAEP 6 emissions regulations scheduled to take effect in 2008.
• A new low-shock, high-pressure turbine blade contour, which lowers the interaction loss between the high- and low-pressure turbines. When combined with additional durability improvements, the high- and low-pressure turbines reduce fuel burn through improved efficiency, and lower maintenance costs. The design also includes a more durable low-pressure turbine nozzle with modified cooling.
The CFM56-5B and -7B together have logged 56 million flight hours and 30 million flight cycles. Some 5,370 are in service on more than 2,540 airplanes. |
CFM International continued to be the world's leading aircraft engine supplier in 2004, logging orders for 683 commercial and military engines at a value of approximately $4.1 billion. In addition, the company received orders for a total of 118 CFM56-3 and CFM56-5C/P upgrade kits. Last year it delivered 728 new CFM56 engines.
The order pace, although robust, is still lagging that of 2003, when airlines and the military ordered 813 CFM56 engines with a list value of more than $4.5 billion. |
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