On the Record with
DR. SAM WILLIAMS, CHAIRMAN, WILLIAMS INTERNATIONAL

Williams Taking Talents to Larger Engines

Williams International is working on a new family of larger engines, founder and chairman Dr. Sam Williams tells Show News.

The company is not giving any details of the new engines, but Dr. Williams hints at his motives: "The dollar volume of the business increases for the larger engines and decreases for the smaller engines. If others start endeavoring to penetrate our engine sector, we will move to bigger engines."

Today, Williams' biggest engine is the 2,400-pounds-thrust FJ44-2C, and it owns the market at or below that size range. However, Pratt & Whitney Canada is moving into smaller engines with the projected PW625. A larger Williams engine would compete with P&WC's PW500 series.

New technology has given Williams an opportunity to expand its product line. "As we improve the technology, we get more out of a given-size core engine," says Dr. Williams. "We can go to higher thrust levels while still building the same size of hardware." This would allow the company to build a new engine without investing in all-new manufacturing equipment or test facilities. As for performance, Dr. Williams is looking for "lower fuel consumption, higher thrust/weight ratio and better price-there's a lot of room for us in the larger engine business."

Now in its final stages of development is the 1,200-pounds-thrust FJ33. "It's going very well," says Dr. Williams. "It's a misinterpreted engine. Some people think of it as another FJ44, but it's a very advanced, high-performance engine with a higher thrust/weight ratio." For the time being, however, the only announced application for the FJ33--apart from the moribund Century Jet CA-100--is the Aerostar FJ-100.

Williams' revolutionary product is the small FJX-2 turbofan and its 770-pounds-thrust derivative, the EJ22, designed specifically for the Eclipse 500. The FJX-2, developed under the NASA GAP program, completed tests earlier this year, and the company is preparing for the manufacture of the EJ22 engines and for the first flight of the Eclipse in July 2002.

"Our intention is that the engines on the first Eclipse will be to the production standard, with processes that are essentially the same as what will be used in quantity production," says Dr. Williams.

The EJ22 will arrive on time and meet its goals, including cost, assures Dr. Williams. "We're really doing what we said we'd do. This wasn't an overnight decision or development. We started developing elements of this engine many years ago."

Technical details remain shrouded in the engine's 14-inch-diameter casing, apart from a prototype compressor rotor that was shown last year. The axial compressor, with six rows of airfoils, had been machined from a single piece of metal. More details will be revealed when the engine is certified.

The EJ22 will be built alongside other engines in Williams' Ogden, UT, plant, which is being continuously upgraded with new machines from U.S. and overseas suppliers. "A key part of what we do," says Dr. Williams, is high-speed machining (HSM), in which cutters spinning at 10,000-20,000 rpm are used for very fine machining of small details.

Williams has long used HSM to take major components, including the FJ44 fan, from rough forgings to finished parts in a single process. "When you make smaller parts, you need very high spindle speeds," says Dr. Williams. "It's a matter of scaling." With very high rotational speeds, even a small cutter can move fast enough--in feet per minute--to get good productivity. Higher speeds also equal lower temperatures, making it possible to machine finer shapes such as the EJ22's tiny compressor blades.

-Bill Sweetman