STEVE LORANGER, PRESIDENT, HONEYWELL ENGINES & SYSTEMS

On the Record with
STEVE LORANGER, PRESIDENT, HONEYWELL ENGINES & SYSTEMS

A new family of small turbofan engines for business and general aviation aircraft will be unveiled here at Farnborough by Honeywell Aerospace.
The 3,000-5,000 lbs thrust engines owe their creation to the world's biggest proposed aircraft-the Airbus A3XX, on which Honeywell is competing with a brand new auxiliary power unit.

But because Airbus won't build as many A3XXs as Ford builds automobiles (it is acknowledged to be "an extremely difficult business case" for suppliers), Honeywell is seeking other uses for the engine.

"The MPC 531 for the Airbus is designed from the outset with a common core. That's what MPC stands for," Honeywell's president for engines and systems Steve Loranger told Show News. "And that core will give us a next-generation turbofan in our 731 size class. It is a brand new design, featuring very high efficiency and very low cost."

Honeywell plans to run a test core before the end of the year, and will launch the new turbofan regardless of whether it is selected for the APU on the A3XX. It is also seen as the basis of a new turboshaft engine for helicopters.

Honeywell believes this is the first time an APU has been designed with the dual intent of becoming a turbofan, although the world's most successful small turbofan, the TFE 731 (with some 8,000 in service) was a derivative of the Garrett APU in the DC-10, and the TPE 331 turboprop was the foundation for the APU in the Boeing 757/767/777 and Airbus A330/340 airliners.

By John Morris

The AS900
The new AS900 turbofan for the Avro RJX regional airliner and Bombardier Continental business jet has racked up more than 2,000 hours of testing with six engines around the world, and is on schedule to tally more than 350 flight test hours by the end of the year. The first four engines for the RJX were received by BAE Systems in June.

Certification is due next March, and Honeywell plans to deliver 72 engines next year and 98 the year after and 142 in 2003, according to engine and systems president Steve Loranger.

"This is perhaps the fastest engine development program in history, with just 32 months from design to certification," said Loranger, who has worked on no fewer than 18 brand new engine centerlines during his career at AlliedSignal and now Honeywell. "It has certainly set an engine benchmark."
Honeywell is discussing new applications for the AS900 "with three or four manufacturers -- the only ones who haven't bought the engine yet," for a variety of business jets and one 30-50 passenger regional airliner. The AS900 can grow from its current 7,000 lbs thrust to 9,000 lbs by turning up the wick and enlarging the front fan from about 34 to 38 inches. "It was designed specifically to able to do this," Loranger said.

Honeywell won't disclose the list price of the engine but says it is about 20% below the traditional curve for dollars per pound of thrust.
Test successes include the blade-out test, and although a little overweight, the engine is exceeding all other design specifications, Loranger said. Engines are being tested around the world at Honeywell's partners TechSpace in Belgium, AIDC in Taiwan, and Orenda in Montreal.

Upgrades
Honeywell continues to score business successes with its program of upgrades for virtually every engine in its stable. Latest win is an $70 million order from AirNet Express for reliability and cost of ownership upgrades on the 731-2C engines on its fleet of 27 Learjets. This upgrade infuses new technology into the -2C engines to extend hot section life from 1,400 to 2,100 hours, with improved temperature margins and greater reliability.