CFM International’s Leap-1B engine won type certificates from both the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), paving the way for entry into commercial service on the Boeing 737 Max 8 in 2017.
CFM characterizes the dual award as unique because, typically, a lead agency issues a type certification and a second agency validates that certification. The dual certification reflects CFM’s 50/50 design and production structure between parent companies GE of the U.S. and Safran of France.
“This is another great milestone for the Leap program and the hard-working team behind it,” said CFM executive vice president Allen Paxson. “Everyone, from the project and engineering teams to manufacturing and our suppliers, has done an incredible job of keeping this program on schedule and building an engine that is delivering everything that we have promised.”
The Leap-1B engine flew for the first time on the Boeing 737 Max 8 on Jan. 29, 2016. Two more aircraft began flying in the program in March and the airplanes have logged a combined total of more than 100 test flights, including recent completion of high-altitude flight testing in La Paz, Bolivia.
“We couldn’t be happier with the way this engine is performing,” said François Bastin, executive vice president of CFM International. “Boeing is racking up an impressive number of flight hours with the test aircraft and initial indications are that engine performance is meeting expectations.”
The Leap-1B features 3-D woven carbon fiber composite fan blades and fan case; what CFM calls a unique debris rejection system; fourth-generation, three-dimensional aerodynamic designs; the twin-annular, pre-swirl (TAPS) combustor featuring additively manufactured fuel nozzles; ceramics matrix composite shrouds in the high-pressure turbine and titanium aluminide (Ti-Al) blades in the low-pressure turbine.
CFM promises the engine will provide operators with double-digit improvements in fuel consumption and CO2 emissions compared with today’s best CFM engine, along with “dramatic” reductions in engine noise and exhaust emissions.
