Looking Back at 2018: Propulsion Technology

General Electric’s Catalyst advanced turboprop began test runs in the Czech Republic at the end of 2017, and a second engine joined the test program in July 2018. The initial 1,240-shp Catalyst will power the single-turboprop Cessna Denali, which is scheduled to fly in 2019. Certification is planned for 2020.

General Electric’s 100,000-lb.-thrust GE9X turbofan, with 134-in.-dia. fan, is under development to power the Boeing 777X widebody twinjet and made its delayed first flight under the wing of GE’s 747-400 flying testbed on March 13. The GE9X-powered 777-9 is scheduled to fly early in 2019.

The UK’s Reaction Engines raised £26.5 million ($37.3 million) from BAE Systems, Boeing, Rolls-Royce and other investors in April to support development of its SABRE (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) for hypersonic and space-access vehicles. The engine core is planned to be tested in 2020.

Rolls-Royce introduced its Pearl turbofan in May, and the 15,125-lb.-thrust Pearl 15 is powering Bombardier’s Global 5500/6500 business jets. Introducing technologies from the Advance2 demonstrator into the proven BR700, the engine produces 9% more thrust, 2 dB less noise and burns 7% less fuel.

Safran was selected in June to develop the hybrid-electric distributed propulsion system for Bell’s eVTOL air taxi, with first flight planned for 2021. Ground tests of the propulsion system—with turbo-generator, batteries and motors and generating an initial 100-kW power—began in July at Safran Helicopter Engines.

Electric motor developer MagniX ran its 260-kW prototype motor driving a propeller for the first time in September. The startup plans to integrate its larger 280-kW production motor onto a testbed aircraft—likely a Cessna Caravan, replacing its PT6A turboprop—for flight tests expected toward the end of 2019.

Safran Helicopter Engines was selected in October to supply a version of its Ardiden 3 turboshaft engine to drive the generator in the ZA10 12-seat hybrid-electric regional aircraft under development by Boeing-backed startup Zunum Aero. A modified Turbo Commander propulsion testbed will fly in 2019.

General Electric unveiled the first purpose-designed supersonic business-jet engine on Oct. 15. Designed for the Aerion AS2, a Mach 1.4 trijet, GE’s Affinity is a two-shaft, twin-fan, medium-bypass turbofan with a core adapted from the CFM56. The engine is designed to enable the AS2 to meet Stage 5 noise limits.

French startup VoltAero, led by former Airbus Chief Technology Officer Jean Botti, revealed in October that it is modifying a Cessna 337 Skymaster into the flying testbed for the “push-pull” hybrid-electric propulsion system planned for its Cassio 4-9-seat general-aviation aircraft. Flight tests are planned for 2019.

Diamond Aircraft Industries flew a multi-engine hybrid-electric aircraft, developed jointly with Siemens and modified from its DA40 piston twin, on Oct. 31 from Wiener Neustadt, Austria. The aircraft has a diesel engine and generator in the nose, batteries in the cabin and electric-driven propellers mounted on a canard foreplane.