GE’s first advanced turboprop engine to complete its maiden test flight in half a century.
September 30, 2021 turned out to be a historic day for GE Aviation. There was tension, excitement, and anxiety in the air around Beechcraft Berlin Aviation hangar as the experimental Beechcraft King Air 350 got ready for its maiden test flight with GE Aviation’s all new Catalyst engine adorned on its left wing. The Catalyst engine is all set to become the first engine designed from scratch and built in Europe within the GE product portfolio. Not just that, the engine became the first clean-sheet turboprop design to complete the first flight in half a century.
Federico Dellavalle from Avio Aero and Pavel Rensa from CVUT Czech Technical University (a partner of GE Aviation Turboprop) finished with their final checks before take-off. The flight lasted for one hour and 40 minutes and took off and landed at Berlin Airport. Officially launched in 2015, the first run of the engine on the Flying Test Bed began in December 2020.
Siting his inspiration behind building the Catalyst engine, David Kimball, GE’s Catalyst Program Leader proudly says, “Customers and industry demands propelled them towards this creation. While customers experienced amazing technology evolutions in large commercial aviation, as well as in private and corporate jets, there has been no major propulsion innovation in small turboprops until now. Thus, we saw an opportunity and decided to seize it. That’s why we designed an engine to deliver a step-change in performance with industry leading technology.”
“We’ve been the first to offer a fully autonomous digital engine control (FADEC). Our inspiration stems from defining, inventing, and delivering to our customer needs.” he further adds.
Out of curiosity when our team at MRO Business Today asked GE team about the choice of aircraft for the experimental catalyst engine, the CEO and General Manager at GE Aviation, Mr Milan Slapak went on to explain about the significant public-private R&D partnership with the CVUT Czech Technical University of Prague, particularly in the area of predictive maintenance modelling. He further added that the university acquired an aircraft to run some experiments related to the predictive maintenance modeling. There were multiple twin-engine aircrafts that met our requirements a King Air 350 best fit those requirements. It’s a proven aircraft, truly an icon for its performance and reliability. Therefore, it was an ideal option to use it as the flying test bed that will generate data for the predictive modeling experiments, he concludes.
GE Aviation’s primary focus was, and always will be, safety. So, GE Aviation and the University took an approach to work with a few other external R&D partners and modify the aircraft with safety top of mind while assuring the aircraft could complete all planned missions. Telling us about one of the biggest challenges faced by the engineering team while pairing an aircraft conceived in the 1960s with the first new engine to be introduced to the turboprop market in 50 years, Mr Kimball instant reply was ‘cockpit integration’. On one wing, you have a legacy engine with multiple control levers to operate the engine and propeller system, and on the other wing, you have the Catalyst that requires a single lever to operate the engine and entire prop control system. GE Aviation, Avio Aero, Czech Tech University and Berlin Beechcraft Aviation each brought their expertise to assure the integration was successful.
Mr Kimball further explains that the entire test campaign will take several months. During the first phase of the campaign, we are working together to extend the envelope of the aircraft and engine. We’ll slowly introduce other test points unique to the flying test bed verses our ground testing, such as maneuvers, in addition to the envelope expansion. The engine has performed in a stable, predictable manner to date with no surprises and the performance of the engine continues to exceed expectations. Once we validate the entire Catalyst-powered King Air 350 envelope, University and GE Aviation will focus on executing the experiments connected with the predictive maintenance modeling. In parallel, we’re also working side by side with our launch commercial customer Textron Aviation to support their upcoming flight tests with the other flightworthy engine received last December and yet installed on the Beechcraft Denali prototype.
The Catalyst engine went through the most extensive certification testing ever for a turboprop engine in the business and general aviation segment. Telling us about the challenges faced during the certification process Mr. Kimball said that most challenging part was with regards to Catalyst certification relate to instrumentation and unique setups for the specific certification tests. To date, we’re proud to say all certification tests completed where successful on the first attempt. This is a strong testament to our broader company experience in designing and certifying engines with all-new technology and also reflects the tremendous effort by all those who have contributed to the program.
The engine is GE’s first modern Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) controlled turboprop, aimed to service the 850 -1600 SHP range. The FADEC is able to deliver a jet-like, single-lever power and propeller control and reduces pilot workload while providing a greater level of control and responsiveness.
The Catalyst engine is an original turboprop design to deliver a step change in performance and is the first turboprop in aviation history made with 3D printed components. Describing the entire process of crucial role played by Predictive maintenance, Mr Slapak said, “ We see fantastic potential in Catalyst because it is fully digital and, therefore, should bring predictive maintenance to the next level within the turboprop BGA market segment. Nobody likes negative surprises and predictive maintenance addresses exactly that. Future systems will notify an operator of a potential issue well in advance so a maintenance action could be scheduled on-time and at the time that suits the operator the most. Besides increasing the safety, it will lower the engine’s total cost of ownership, not mentioning benefits of smooth migration from hard TBO limits into on-condition potentially. Additive technology sets designers free to use geometries that they were not able to shape in the past. Such shapes positively affect engine performance while reducing the bill of material significantly, which simplifies the supply chain. Every time you simplify supply chain, you also reduce cycle time of new engine component’s production as well as enhance performances in engine overhauls.”
The Catalyst engine features an industry-best 16:1 overall pressure ratio, enabling the engine to achieve as much as 20 percent lower fuel burn and 10 percent higher cruise power compared to competitors in the same size class.
The Catalyst engine successful first flight opened a world of opportunities in the business and general aviation market with Textron Aviation as the launch customer. It is just the start; the engine has wide application in the defence space for drones and trainers. It can be, in addition, a super-efficient core that can paves the way towards hybridization of flight.
