THE GENERAL Electric GE90-powered Boeing 777, which is to be used in seeking early-extended range twin-engine operations (ETOPS) approval, had its first flight on 16 May.
The company, meanwhile, is still no nearer solving the mysterious 4 May, surge on a GE90 engine powering the first British Airways 777.
The engine maker says: "Nothing has been found so far - we're still running the data." GE says that the incident "...was not a full compressor stall surge", and adds that, "we're trying to determine if it was an engine or flight-region-related event".
At the time of the surge, the aircraft was being used to test stall margins at take-off as part of engine-operability characteristic tests (Flight International, 15-23 May).
The first CFM International CFM56-7 engine for the new Boeing 737 series went on test at Snecma's Villaroche site in France on 28 April.
The engine will be flown on GE's Boeing 747 testbed in January 1996 and will be certificated in October that year. The first CFM56-7 is scheduled to enter service, on a Southwest Airlines 737-700, in late 1997 with the first flight due in the first quarter of 1997.
Source: Flight International
