News
LEAP engine gets a chance to test its wings
Oct. 10, 2015, Victorville, Ca. - GE Aviation joint venture CFM International got to test out its new high-tech aircraft engine in its very first flight this week. The LEAP engine got its first flight on a modified Boeing 747 at the GE Aviation Flight Test Operations testbed in Victorville, Calif., on Oct. 6, the company announced Thursday.
October 10, 2014 By The Cincinnati Business Courier
‘
CFM says the engine behaved well and completed multiple aeromechanical test points at various altitudes during the three-and-a-half hour flight.
“The LEAP engine behaved like a real veteran as we took it through its aerodynamic clearance points,” chief test pilot Steven Crane said in a news release. “The durability and reliability one expects from a CFM product is clearly there. The flight test data also showed the benefits this engine has gained from leveraging GEnx core technology. I think this flight was a very positive foreshadowing of great things to come for the LEAP engine family.”
The LEAP engine is designed to provide double-digit improvements in fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. The engine is undergoing the most extensive ground and flight test certification in CFM history, with 28 ground and CFM flight test engines, as well as 32 flight test engines for Airbus, Boeing and COMAC.
