FARNBOROUGH - Building upon its most successful year since the airline industry downturn of the early 1990s, GE Aircraft Engines' best-selling CF6 engine family is experiencing a market resurgence while continuing to establish ever-higher levels of performance.
Citing performance, safety, value, and reliability, CF6 customers ordered 244 engines in 1997, including CF6-80C2 engines for 100 percent of Boeing 767-400ER (Extended Range) orders. In addition to a $600 million order from Continental Airlines and a $500 million order from Delta Airlines in 1997, Air New Zealand and LanChile, the Chilean national airline, also selected CF6 engines for their Boeing 767-400ER aircraft. The 767-400ER was launched in 1996 powered by the CF6-80C2, and is scheduled to begin delivery this year.
Also in 1998, International Lease Finance Corporation (ILFC) ordered 28 CF6-80C2 engines to power two Boeing 747-400s, five Boeing 767-400ERs, and three Boeing 767-300ERs. This is ILFC's first order for the new 767-400ER, a stretched version of the 767-300ER.
An excellent indicator of the widespread popularity of this engine among the world's airlines is this year's delivery of the 2,500th CF6-80C2 engine, shipped to Boeing in early May for installation on a 747-400 delivered to EVA Airways of Taiwan.
In its 27 years of service, the CF6 family of engines has achieved remarkable levels of reliability while accumulating almost 200 million flight hours in the fleets of more than 150 airline customers worldwide. Overall, CF6 engines enjoy a dispatch reliability rate of 99.94 percent (about one engine-caused delay per 2,000 departures).
In March, a CF6-80C2 engine in service with US Airways achieved an outstanding milestone by logging 30,015 flight hours on wing without a single removal, besting the previous record of 28,888 hours set by another CF6 engine in 1996. The engine entered service on a US Airways 767-200ER in November 1990, and during the past eight years maintained outstanding in-service reliability, with no in-flight shutdowns, and a 99.88 percent dispatch reliability rate. The other CF6-80C2 engine delivered on this aircraft in 1990 logged 28,747 hours and 6,005 cycles without a shop visit until it was removed last November-another impressive achievement.
The CF6-80C2 was launched into service in March 1998 on a new military application with the delivery of two new -80C2-powered Boeing 767 AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft to the Japan Defense Agency (JDA). The JDA launched the 767 AWACS program with an order for four of the advanced aircraft; the two remaining airplanes are scheduled for delivery in 1999. The new 767 AWACS is the first tactical application for the CF6-80C2.
The -80C2 is the powerplant for Air Force One, a Boeing 747-200, which serves as the official aircraft of the president of the United States. Designated the F103-GE-102 for U.S. Air Force service, the engines power two aircraft that have logged more than 20,000 flight hours.
Building on the CF6 family's success, GE is offering a higher-thrust CF6 derivative in the 63,000-pound-thrust class. Designed to provide airline customers with significant payload advantage and incorporating a new improved Rene 88 high-pressure turbine, this derivative provides improved turbine durability, lower maintenance costs, and higher temperature capability. The new CF6 configuration, which requires no other modifications to incorporate the new Rene 88 turbine, will be available to airline customers in May 2000.
GE continues to develop CF6 derivatives with thrust growth and additional improvements to fulfill the powerplant requirements of airframe designs. Incorporating technologies such as new acoustics, improved fan blades, and 3-D aero design, CF6 derivatives will be designed to increase takeoff performance and meet thrust requirements of new, derivative, higher gross-weight aircraft, while reducing noise levels and combustor emissions and improving specific fuel consumption.