Honeywell Ships AS907s for Continental Flight Test

Honeywell has completed assembly of the second set of fully podded AS907 engines for the Bombardier Continental business jet, and is in the process of assembling the third shipset. The first AS907 production set was installed in Continental s/n 20001 at Bombardier's Wichita facility in an operation that took less than an hour for each engine.

"The ease of installation validates our concurrent engineering and manufacturing approach using CATIA modeling as a way of decreasing assembly time on the aircraft," said Dominique Hedon, Honeywell commercial propulsion VP at Engines.

The AS907 recently passed FAA certification tests for engine cold starting and icing. Validation testing of thrust reverser effectiveness and reliability is underway in Phoenix, Arizona, with more than 1,000 reverser cycles completed. The first flight of the Continental, with AS907s, is expected this summer.

The AS900 has accumulated more than 4,200 hours of testing, including nearly 275 flight hours aboard Honeywell's Boeing 720 flying test bed and more than 5,000 accelerated mission cycles. Honeywell plans to use 15 engines in the AS900 test program, and expects to complete more than 10,000 hours of testing on the engine before it enters service on the Continental.

The AS900 has a 34.2-inch high-efficiency wide-chord damperless fan and a bypass ratio of 4.2. The four-stage axial compressor features integrally bladed rotors for low parts count and improved life. An effusion-cooled combustor provides uniform temperature profiles and reduced emissions outputs. All discs in the engine are designed for an ultimate life of 25,000 cycles, with a 15,000-cycle service life on introduction.

The AS900's simple but robust design will offer operators reduced operating costs, claims Honeywell.