CFM International has begun flight tests of its new Leap-1A engine destined for the Airbus A320neo narrowbody, the GE Aviation-Snecma joint venture has confirmed.
A modified Boeing 747-400 owned by GE is being used for trials of the 24,500-32,900lb-thrust turbofan, which are taking place at Victorville, California.
It is the second of the Leap-series engines to take to the skies, following the maiden sortie of the -1C for the Comac C919 in October 2014.
The -1B for the 737 Max will fly later this year, with assembly work on the initial flight-test engine under way at GE's facility in Evendale, Ohio.
Of the three Leap engines, the -1A and -1C are broadly similar while the -1B is slightly smaller. The latter features a 69.5in (176.5cm) fan with a 9:1 bypass ratio, against figures of 78in and 11:1 for the -1A and -1C.
So far, CFM has conducted engine runs totalling 1,940h across 3,360 cycles using all three engine variants. It aims to have achieved 40,000 cycles by service entry of the Leap-1A next year and 60,000 by the time the -1C enters service in 2018.
The test programme will cover 28 engines for ground and flight tests directly for the manufacturer, while 32 engines will be used for flight tests on behalf of the three airframers.
CFM has yet to release its order totals for 2014, but says that it was "a record year" which beat its previous high point of 2013, when it won orders for 1,330 CFM56 and 1,393 Leap engines.
"We surpassed that number in 2014 by a significant margin," it says.
An earlier version of the story gave hours rather than cycles as the unit for the 40,000 and 60,000 figures in the sixth paragraph. This has been corrected
Source: Cirium Dashboard
