PRATT & WHITNEY and MTU have named former PW4084 programme manager Tom Davenport as head of the new Mid Thrust Family Engine (MTFE) project, marking the formal start of the joint initiative.
MTU's Rainer Schwab has also been named deputy manager of the project, which aims to design and build a family of engines in the 65-110kN (15,000-24,000lb)-thrust range for new 75- to 100-seat passenger aircraft.
The MTFE will be aimed at BMW Rolls-Royce products, particularly its BR700-series of turbofans, now under development. The project will save some time by using experimental hardware which was developed for the RTF180 - an earlier attempt by the two partners to build a rival to the BR700.
More recently, the two companies had joined Snecma and General Electric in the now defunct Project Blue.
A baseline demonstration core, using the high-pressure spool developed for the RTF180, will run in the second quarter of 1995 at P&W's Connecticut site.
"We are beginning the development effort in order to have an engine ready by 1999, providing there is an aircraft ready to put it on," says P&W - which now has a 51% share of the MTFE.
"The end of the century is when we think the airframe consortia will have something ready, but we can speed it up or slow it down. The entire programme will be paced to keep up with the airframes, but it is a formal programme," adds the company. Several 75-100 seater projects are under study in Asia, Europe and the USA.
The MTFE partners are in discussion with other potential team members. "We're working out all that right now and we're talking to several other traditional, and some non-traditional partners," says P&W.
Source: Flight International
