Meggitt (Hall3, D8) has won a contract to supply the engine monitoring unit (EMU) for the Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine destined for the new Airbus A380.
The contract, worth an estimated $100 million over the next 10 years, will use a flexible design requiring the minimum of reconfiguration for fitment to new engines as well as possible retrofit to existing installations.
Once proven on the Trent 900, the EMU may be configured for other Rolls-Royce aircraft engines and gas turbine engines in the industrial and marine sectors.
This will make the Meggitt EMU the first sophisticated gas-turbine monitoring system to be engine-mounted and designed to operate with any engine from the manufacturer's range.
Signals
The EMU will collect and process various engine parameters including vibration signals, rotational speeds, pressures, temperatures and oil debris information, linking with data from the full authority digital engine control system to provide a detailed image of engine condition.
The new system will be demonstrated in early 2003. Enhanced versions will be extensively tested from May 2003 to mid-2004 on a demonstration Airbus aircraft equipped with a Trent 900 engine.
Certification will be achieved in 2004, and flight tests on the A380 are expected to take place during 2005, with full production implementation from early 2006.
Source: Flight Daily News
