A380: the countdown is on - Orient Aviation

SUPPLIER PROFILE
Engines: challenges met
Powerful, quiet, clean, economic
It will take a mighty engine to propel <strong>the</strong> largest commercial
passenger aircraft ever built. Four mighty engines, in fact,
producing a combined 280,000lbs of thrust. Add in no<strong>is</strong>e
stipulations, em<strong>is</strong>sion controls and <strong>the</strong> low fuel burn
demanded by Airbus and it <strong>is</strong> easy to see <strong>the</strong> engineers at
Rolls-Royce and <strong>the</strong> Engine Alliance have faced a huge challenge.
The spotlight at present <strong>is</strong> on Rolls-Royce’s Trent 900, <strong>the</strong> fourth
in <strong>the</strong> long-running family of Brit<strong>is</strong>h engines. It will power all four
development aircraft now being assembled in Toulouse, including
<strong>the</strong> test flight plane due to take off in <strong>the</strong> first quarter of 2005. Two
Trent 900s have already been fitted on to that aircraft. Singapore
Airlines also chose it for its 10 <strong>A380</strong>s, <strong>the</strong> first of which will fly in
<strong>the</strong> second quarter of 2006 when <strong>the</strong> airplane enters service.
The Trent 900 has been through extensive land and air tests with
an Airbus A340-300 being util<strong>is</strong>ed as a flying test bed last May.
They culminated in certification in late October.
But <strong>the</strong> Europeans cannot afford to get carried away. The Engine
Alliance’s GP7200 engine, produced by a joint venture between
General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, <strong>is</strong> at present outselling
<strong>the</strong> Trent 900, mainly thanks to a block order of 43 planes from
Emirates Airline, <strong>the</strong> largest single buyer of <strong>A380</strong>s so far. The
Engine Alliance has MTU of Germany, Snecma Motors of France
and Techspace Aero of Belgium as revenue sharing partners.
The score so far in engine terms <strong>is</strong> Rolls-Royce 43, Engine
The Engine Alliance
EA’s 10-year journey
By Charles Anderson
A
long journey will come to
an end for Bruce Hughes
and h<strong>is</strong> team at <strong>the</strong> Engine
Alliance (EA) when <strong>the</strong>
GP7200 goes into service
on <strong>the</strong> first of Emirates Airline’s <strong>A380</strong>s in
October 2006.
Hughes, a General Electric executive,
arrived at <strong>the</strong> joint venture with Pratt &
Whitney a few months after its launch in
1996. Little did he think it would be 10 years
before <strong>the</strong> resulting engine, first env<strong>is</strong>aged
as <strong>the</strong> power plant for a 550-seat Boeing
747, would start its working life.
He compares it to an earlier Snecma-
General Electric joint venture that took many
years to produce <strong>the</strong> CFM series. “We used to
joke that we would finally beat CFM in terms
of time from <strong>the</strong> beginning of <strong>the</strong> programme.
I think we passed <strong>the</strong>m a while ago,” said
Hughes, <strong>the</strong> Engine Alliance senior vicepresident
and project general manager.
Judging by <strong>the</strong> 60% of <strong>A380</strong> orders that
<strong>the</strong> GP7200 has won, <strong>the</strong> wait has been
worthwhile. That translates to 300 engines,
including spare units. “We are happy with
where we are, but Emirates <strong>is</strong> an awfully big
chunk of that. We would like to add some
more logos,” said Hughes.
The problem was that during those long
years <strong>the</strong>y didn’t have an airplane to put <strong>the</strong>
engine on. They do now. “You have to tip
your hat to Airbus. They have done a good job
by getting th<strong>is</strong> airplane launched,” he added.
The Engine Alliance switched its
attention to <strong>the</strong> <strong>A380</strong> when Boeing decided
20 ORIENT AVIATION / <strong>A380</strong> Quarterly Update DECEMBER 2004-FEBRUARY 2005
Alliance 67 with <strong>the</strong> remainder undecided.
The GP7200 <strong>is</strong> due to start its stint on a flying test bed about
in early December, in th<strong>is</strong> case on a Boeing 747 in California.
Certification <strong>is</strong> due in July 2005.
Both engines have fully swept fan designs and very high bypass
ratio turbofans that generate thrust by moving a greater volume
of air through <strong>the</strong> engine more slowly than previous types. No<strong>is</strong>e
levels are helped by 3-D aerodynamics throughout <strong>the</strong> compressors
and in <strong>the</strong> turbines.
These and o<strong>the</strong>r advances in engine design, plus alterations to
landing gear to reduce wind roar, allow <strong>the</strong> <strong>A380</strong> a shorter take-off
run and steeper climb-out, substantially reducing its no<strong>is</strong>e footprint
around airports.
Th<strong>is</strong> <strong>is</strong> especially important at London Heathrow Airport, where
<strong>the</strong> QC2 no<strong>is</strong>e requirement, a stipulation of <strong>the</strong> SIA order, forced <strong>the</strong>
engine makers to rethink <strong>the</strong>ir designs, with fan diameters being
increased to 116 inches in both cases.
Thanks to its engines, <strong>the</strong> <strong>A380</strong> will save 53 tonnes of fuel and
a corresponding volume of em<strong>is</strong>sions, for every 1,000 passengers
flown on a 13-hour flight compared to a B747-400.
Both engines have been designed to beat <strong>the</strong> 70,000lbs of thrust
at present required, to power a possible stretch version or meet o<strong>the</strong>r
future demands. The Trent 900 has hit 93,000lbs and <strong>the</strong> GP7200
92,000lbs.
The Engine Alliance switched its
attention to <strong>the</strong> <strong>A380</strong> when Boeing
decided against a super jumbo of its own