((Automated translation by Reuters, please see disclaimer https://bit.ly/rtrsauto))
French engine maker Safran SAF.PA announced Friday that it had begun wind tunnel testing of its “RISE” technology project, a radical jet engine design for the next generation of medium-haul aircraft.
Safran and its partner GE Aerospace GE.N are testing the building blocks of an open-blade jet engine at the site capable of reducing fuel consumption and emissions by 20% from the middle of the next decade.
Positioned as a possible successor to the “LEAP” model used on the Boeing 737 MAX and about half of competing Airbus A320neo jets, “RISE” features visible fan blades and is said to be twice the diameter of current comparable models, in a concern for efficiency.
A significant part of future certification is expected to focus on safely handling any blade failures, given that the front fan that provides most of an engine’s thrust would not be housed in the conventional housing familiar to passengers airlines.
A one-fifth mock-up of the “Open Fan” concept, revealed to journalists on Friday, sits inside a vast tunnel outside Modane in the French Alps and will be subjected to 200 hours of tests.
The historic S1MA wind tunnel was originally built from plans and steel parts seized at the end of World War II from a construction site in the Austrian Tyrol, where Nazi Germany had embarked on a race to exploit the advances made in the fields of propulsion and aeronautics.
The plans included a system of interchangeable test chambers, each weighing 500 tonnes, which fit into the massive rectangular tunnel on rails, and which are still in use today.
French research organization ONERA claims it is the largest wind tunnel of its kind, which involves accelerating air to the sound barrier to replicate or exceed typical cruising speeds.
Powered solely by hydroelectric energy, which represents a thousandth of France’s total consumption, this series of tunnels winding along the mountainside has made it possible to test iconic aircraft, from the Concorde to the Airbus A380, through generations French fighter planes.
Its future was called into question when subsidence was spotted ten years ago, prompting the injection of French and European funds.
CFM is the world’s leading manufacturer of aircraft engines by number of units sold. It is the sole supplier of engines for the Boeing 737 MAX and competes with Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies RTX.N, for the airlines’ selection of engines on the Airbus A320neo.