The CFE CFE738 is a small
turbofan
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...
engine aimed at the business/commuter jet market manufactured by the
CFE Company, and is used on the
Dassault Falcon 2000
The Dassault Falcon 2000 is a business jet produced by French Dassault Aviation, a member of its Falcon business jet line. Developed from the Falcon 900 trijet, the smaller twinjet has less range.
Development
The Falcon 900 fuselage was sho ...
.
Design and development
The success of the
GE27/GLC38 gas generator development of the 1980s led to the formation of the
CFE Company by GE and the
Garrett Engine Division of
Allied Signal
AlliedSignal was an American aerospace, automotive and engineering company created through the 1985 merger of Allied Corp. and Signal Companies. It subsequently purchased Honeywell for $14.8 billion in 1999, and thereafter adopted the Honeywell ...
(now Honeywell) in 1987.
The CFE738 is a two-shaft design, consisting of a single stage
bypass fan connected via one shaft to a 3-stage low-pressure (LP)
turbine
A turbine ( or ) (from the Greek , ''tyrbē'', or Latin ''turbo'', meaning vortex) is a rotary mechanical device that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work. The work produced by a turbine can be used for generating ...
at the rear of the engine; with a six-stage combination low-pressure/high-pressure (LP/HP) axial/
centrifugal compressor
Centrifugal compressors, sometimes called impeller compressors or radial compressors, are a sub-class of dynamic axisymmetric work-absorbing turbomachinery.
They achieve pressure rise by adding energy to the continuous flow of fluid through th ...
(five axial stages and one centrifugal stage) driven by a two-stage HP turbine, between the fan and the LP turbine, on the other shaft. There is an axial combustion chamber between the compressor stages and the HP turbine. A mixer is built in to the jetpipe to mix cold bypass air with the hot exhaust gases. The engine has an
overall pressure ratio
In aeronautical engineering, overall pressure ratio, or overall compression ratio, is the ratio of the stagnation pressure as measured at the front and rear of the compressor of a gas turbine engine. The terms ''compression ratio'' and ''pressure ...
of 35:1, which is extremely high for an engine with a centrifugal compressor. Other cycle parameters are a
bypass ratio
The bypass ratio (BPR) of a turbofan engine is the ratio between the mass flow rate of the bypass stream to the mass flow rate entering the core. A 10:1 bypass ratio, for example, means that 10 kg of air passes through the bypass duct for ev ...
of 5.3 and airflow of 240 lb/s (108.9 kg/s). The take-off thrust is 5,600 lbf (24.9 kN), flat-rated to
ISA +15°C (30°C, 86°F).
Chosen to power the Falcon 2000 in 1990, the engine was also first run in May 1990, and it was first flown on a
Boeing 727
The Boeing 727 is an American narrow-body airliner that was developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
After the heavy 707 quad-jet was introduced in 1958, Boeing addressed the demand for shorter flight lengths from smaller airpo ...
testbed on 31 August 1992.
The CFE738-1 made its inaugural flight on a Falcon 2000 prototype on March 4, 1993. It was certified by the United States
Federal Aviation Administration
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic m ...
(FAA) on December 17, 1993, and it entered service in 1994.
Applications
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Dassault Falcon 2000
The Dassault Falcon 2000 is a business jet produced by French Dassault Aviation, a member of its Falcon business jet line. Developed from the Falcon 900 trijet, the smaller twinjet has less range.
Development
The Falcon 900 fuselage was sho ...
Specifications
See also
References
Bibliography
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External links
General Electric CFE738 page
{{Joint development aeroengines
High-bypass turbofan engines
1990s turbofan engines