Engines
A Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine on the wing of an Airbus A380The A380 can be fitted with two types of engines: A380-841, A380-842 and A380-843F with Rolls-Royce Trent 900, and the A380-861 and A380-863F with Engine Alliance GP7000 turbofans. The Trent 900 is a derivative of the Trent 800, and the GP7000 has roots from the GE90 and PW4000. The Trent 900 core is a scaled version of the Trent 500, but incorporates the swept fan technology of the stillborn Trent 8104.[101] The GP7200 has a GE90-derived core and PW4090-derived fan and low-pressure turbo-machinery.[102] Only two of the four engines are fitted with thrust reversers.[103]
Noise reduction was an important requirement in the A380's design, and particularly affects engine design.[104][105] Both engine types allow the aircraft to achieve QC/2 departure and QC/0.5 arrival noise limits under the Quota Count system set by London Heathrow Airport,[106] which is a key destination for the A380.[14]
The A380 was used to demonstrate the viability of a synthetic fuel comprising standard jet fuel with a natural-gas-derived component. On 1 February 2008, a three hour test flight operated between Britain and France, with one of the A380's four engines using a mix of 60 percent standard jet kerosene and 40 percent gas to liquids (GTL) fuel supplied by Shell.[107] The aircraft needed no modification to use the GTL fuel, which was designed to be mixed with normal jet fuel. Sebastien Remy, head of Airbus SAS's alternative fuel programme, said the GTL used was no cleaner in CO2 terms than standard fuel but it had local air quality benefits because it contains no sulphur.[108]
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Engine Alliance GP7000
.
Type Turbofan
Manufacturer Engine Alliance
First run 2004
Major applications Airbus A380
Unit cost $13.5 million (2006 USD)
Developed from General Electric GE90 PW4000
The Engine Alliance GP7000 is a turbofan jet engine that is currently in service on the Airbus A380.
Contents
1 Design and development
2 Applications
3 Specifications (GP7270)
4 See also
5 References
6 External links
Design and development
Originally intended to power Boeing Commercial Airplanes's cancelled 747-500X/-600X, the engine has since been pushed for Airbus' A380-800 superjumbo. It is built around the GE90-110B/115B core and contains a Pratt & Whitney fan and low-pressure system design.
The competing Rolls-Royce Trent 900 was named as the lead engine for the then-named A3XX in 1996 and was initially selected by almost all A380 customers. However the GE/PW engine increased its share of the A380 engine market to the point where as of September 2007 it will power 47% of the super-jumbo fleet. This disparity in sales was resolved in a single transaction, with Emirates' order of 55 GP7000-powered A380-800s, comprising over one quarter of A380 sales (as of September 2007). Emirates has traditionally been a Rolls-Royce customer. A380 aircraft powered by the GP7000s will have A380-86X model numbers as 6 is the code for Engine Alliance engines.
Ground testing of the engine began in April 2004 and the engine was run for the first time on an A380 on August 14, 2006. [1] The American Federal Aviation Administration certified the engine for commercial operation on January 4, 2006. [2] On August 25, 2006, an A380-861 test aircraft (MSN 009) made the first flight of an Engine Alliance powered A380. The flight began and ended at Toulouse and lasted about four hours. Tests were performed on the engines' flight envelope, cruise speed, and handling. A day earlier, the same aircraft performed rejected takeoff tests on the engines.
The Engine Alliance offers the GP7200 for the Airbus A380 passenger and freighter configurations. The GP7200 is rated at 81,500 lbf (363,000 N) of thrust. The engine is offered with two ratings appropriate for the various A380 configurations and take-off weights: GP7270 for the 560 tonne variant, and GP7277 for the 590 tonne A380-800 freighter.
[edit] Applications
Airbus A380
[edit] Specifications (GP7270)
General characteristics
Type: two-spool high-bypass turbofan engine
Length: 4.74 m (187 in)
Diameter: 3.16 m (124 in), fan tip 2.95 m (116 in)
Dry weight: 6,712 kg (14,800 lb)
Components
Compressor: hollow-titanium, 24 swept wide-chord hollow titanium fan blades, by-pass ratio of 8.7:1; five-stage low-pressure axial compressor; nine-stage high-pressure axial compressor
Combustors: low-emissions single annular combustor
Turbine: two-stage high pressure turbine, boltless architecture, single crystal blades, split blade cooling and thermal barrier coatings, axial flow; six-stage low-pressure axial flow
Performance
Maximum thrust:
36,980 kgf, 363 kN, 81,500 lbf
Overall pressure ratio: 43.9
Thrust-to-weight ratio: 4.73 (assuming 17,230 lbf weight of engine and 81,500 lbf of thrust)
