Work on GE Honda’s HF120 advanced 2,000lb thrust turbofan propulsion system is proceeding apace – with formal certification testing still on target to begin at the turn of the year.
This year has been all about design validation, according to GE Honda’s president Bill Dwyer, who says the new engine will give great customer value in terms of “price point, weight, fuel efficiency and maintenance costs”.
This year Dwyer says the company has exhaustively tested 10 different builds of the turbofan and nine of the engine’s core, all designed to ensure optimum performance – and to test build quality. “If anything’s going to break, it’ll break in the test cell and not on the wing. This is important because both GE and Honda are world-renowned quality brand names and we can’t afford any threats to either status.”
The engine features a high-flow, wide-chord 18.5in fan and a compressor that features a titanium impeller designed to achieve maximum engine pressure ratio and stall-free performance. Both fan and two-stage booster are GE Honda blisk designs, drawing on the technology used on GE’s GEnx engines, soon to fly on Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner.
The centrifugal compressor itself draws on technology Honda developed back in 1986 for its turbocharged Formula One race car engine, driven by world champions Ayrton Senna and Nigel Mansell.
By the time the engine is certified, towards the end of 2009, Dwyer says that it will have been tested for around 15,000 ground and flight hours, including time mounted on a Cessna CJ1 flying test-bed. The company believes that the engine will be a “step forward in terms of power-to-weight ratio and will also offer a 40% improvement over the competition in TBO (5,000h) thanks to its durable materials, basic architecture and overall balance. It will also be down to Honda’s rapid prototyping in its Tokyo-based R&D centre”.
Commenting on the current credit crunch and the subsequent chaos in the world’s financial markets, Dwyer says that although these are clearly “exciting times” for the industry, strong companies look to the long term and don’t get over-concerned about short-term issues. “The aviation OEM business has always suffered from a 7-10 year up-down cycle and the likelihood is that things will get worse before they get better this time around – but the long-term prospects are still looking very positive and I’m confident for the future.”
The HF120 will produce a maximum thrust of 2,050lb and has been designed to power both HondaJet’s advanced light jet and the Spectrum Freedom business jet – both of which are scheduled for certification and EIS in 2010.
Source: Flight International
