The General Electric Catalyst (formerly Advanced Turboprop, or ATP) is a
turboprop
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller.
A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. Fuel ...
engine by
GE Aviation
GE Aviation, a subsidiary of General Electric, is headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. GE Aviation is among the top aircraft engine suppliers, and offers engines for the majority of commercial aircraft. GE Aviation is part of the ...
.
It was announced on 16 November 2015 and will power the
Beechcraft Denali
The Beechcraft Denali, also known as the Model 220 and previously the Cessna Denali and Textron "Single Engine Turboprop" (SETP), is an American single engine turboprop aircraft under development by Textron Aviation. Announced at EAA AirVent ...
, it first ran on December 22, 2017, and should be certified in 2023.
The engine aims for 20% better efficiency than its competition thanks to a 16:1
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 ...
, variable
stator
The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors or biological rotors. Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotating component of the system. In an electric mot ...
vanes, cooled
s,
3D printed
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
parts and
FADEC
A full authority digital engine (or electronics) control (FADEC) is a system consisting of a digital computer, called an "electronic engine controller" (EEC) or "engine control unit" (ECU), and its related accessories that control all aspects of ai ...
.
Development
After introducing the
General Electric H80
The General Electric H-Series is a family of turboprop aircraft engines produced by GE BGA Turboprops. The initial H80 is an updated derivative of the Walter M601, while the H75 and H85 are later derivatives.
Development
The H80 was launched ...
in 2010 to improve the
Walter M601
The Walter M601 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Walter Aircraft Engines of the Czech Republic. The company's first turboprop, the M601 is used in business, agricultural and military training aircraft.
Development
The turboprop was ...
, GE started analyzing its competition and devised a clean-design engine in 2014, then was selected for the
Cessna Denali
The Beechcraft Denali, also known as the Model 220 and previously the Cessna Denali and Textron "Single Engine Turboprop" (SETP), is an American single engine turboprop aircraft under development by Textron Aviation. Announced at EAA AirVent ...
competition.
In September 2015, General Electric created a European turboprop development center, after the
US-Exim Bank closure in June, investing over $400 million and creating 500 to 1,000 jobs.
The engine was announced on 16 November 2015 at the
National Business Aviation Association
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is a non-profit, 501(c)(6) organization based in Washington, DC, United States. NBAA’s mission, according to the non-profit data and transparency organization GuideStar, is: “to foster an en ...
's annual tradeshow.
[
In 2016, the gearbox, power turbine and combustor were to be made in ]Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, the rotating components were to be supplied from Warsaw
Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...
and the final assembly line
An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in seq ...
was planned at Walter Engines
Walter Aircraft Engines is an aircraft engine manufacturer and former automotive manufacturer. Its notable products include the Walter M601, M601 turboprop. The company is based in Prague, Czech Republic. It has been a subsidiary of GE Aviation ...
in Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
. At the time, major components were split between GE-owned facilities in Poland and Italy, both belonging to Avio Aero
Avio S.p.A. is an Italian company operating in the aerospace sector with its head office in Colleferro near Rome, Italy. Founded in 1908, it is present in Italy and abroad with different commercial offices and 10 production sites. Avio operates ...
. Avio Aero was acquired by GE in 2013.
As of 2021, the Avio Aero website does not list any facility in Warsaw.
It was designed by GE in Europe, and for the power and gas generator turbine, and the high pressure compressor, by the Engineering Design Center in Warsaw, an alliance between General Electric Company Polska and the Warsaw Institute of Aviation.
In October 2017, GE received 85% of the parts, on track to deliver the first test engine by the end of the year.
At this time, the axial-centrifugal compressor vehicle - stator, rotor and cold-section assemblies - was tested in Munich
Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...
to validate its efficiency, performance and operability.
Testing
After two years of development, it completed its first test run in Prague on December 22, 2017.
After most of the component tested and the engine run, GE Aviation maintains its performance objectives and hope to exceed them.
It will begin certification testing in 2018, validating the aerodynamics, mechanics, and aerothermal systems.
It is expected to power the Beechcraft Denali first flight in late 2018 and will complete over 2000 hours of testing before the Denali enter service.
GE Aviation Czech, the development, testing and production headquarters, has recruited around 180 employees, with another 80 expected in 2018 among 500 others for the complete facility at full production rate.
It was developed over two years by 400 GE designers, engineers and materials experts in the Czech Republic, Italy, Germany, Poland, the U.S. and elsewhere.
Six test cells will open, 10 test engines will be built and it will be flown later in 2018 on a flying testbed, certification tests over 2018-2019 include altitude, performance and high-vibration testing.[
In March 2018 the first sample ran nearly 40 hours before several years of health monitoring review.
The next engine is assembled and instrumented for altitude trials and will be tested in Canada from summer 2018.
From later in 2018, Cessna will receive three engines to prepare the first-quarter 2019 Denali ]maiden flight
The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets.
The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alwa ...
.
Its development is 30% faster than previous new GE projects as the development program has 10 engines, plus several rebuilds.
Over the next two years, 33 engine tests overall will happen including 17 certification tests.
The certification do not require a flying testbed but a modified King Air 350
The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was dropped in 1996. ...
may be used for flight safety clearance early in 2019, before Denali flight tests.[
At the end of May 2018, 60 hours of testing were completed including at full power while second engine assembly was nearly complete for a summer first run, component certification was imminent and should be followed by whole-engine ]certification
Certification is the provision by an independent body of written assurance (a certificate) that the product, service or system in question meets specific requirements. It is the formal attestation or confirmation of certain characteristics of a ...
testing, starting with ingestion
Ingestion is the consumption of a substance by an organism. In animals, it normally is accomplished by taking in a substance through the mouth into the gastrointestinal tract, such as through eating or drinking. In single-celled organisms ingest ...
and altitude
Altitude or height (also sometimes known as depth) is a distance measurement, usually in the vertical or "up" direction, between a reference datum and a point or object. The exact definition and reference datum varies according to the context ...
tests.
By July 2018, the first engine ran over 100 hours while a second engine is running in Prague before being sent to Canada later in the year for altitude testing, performance is on target or better than predicted.
By May 2019, test engines ran up to in an altitude chamber and over 1,000 h, simulating three years of operations, while the FADEC ran 300 h in the Denali iron bird.
By October 2019, over 1,000 engine cycles logged 1,600h of tests: 1,200h in test cells and 400h in compressor rigs.
Altitude, endurance, vibration, durability and ingestion testing were complete, as integrated propeller controls tests and high-pressure compressor and gas generator turbine overspeed tests.
New icing tests requirements pushed back the first engine delivery to 2020, and Beechcraft Denali first flight even further.
Five engines were assembled by then, and two other should be completed before 2019 ends.
First flight test aboard a King Air
The Beechcraft King Air is a line of American utility aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The King Air line comprises a number of twin-turboprop models that have been divided into two families. The Model 90 and 100 series developed in the 1960s ...
was delayed until spring 2020 and certification for autumn 2021, after a 18-month campaign, due to new FAA testing requirements, including icing tests.
By July 2021, 16 engines had been produced and completed 2,500h of operation; as 30% of Catalyst’s certification tests were completed including some icing tests.[
Tests have shown more power at high altitudes than expected and a 1-2% more efficiency than anticipated for up to 16-17% more than competitors.][
One turboprop was fitted to a ]Beechcraft King Air 350
The Beechcraft Super King Air family is part of a line of twin-turboprop aircraft produced by Beechcraft. The Model 200 and Model 300 series were originally marketed as the "Super King Air" family; the "Super" designation was dropped in 1996. ...
in Berlin which completed some taxi tests, to achieve maiden flight in the coming months and certification by end-2022.[
Another engine was installed on a Denali airframe to make its first flight before year-end and to achieve certification in 2023.]
The Catalyst made its first flight on a King Air testbed on September 30.
On November 23, the Denali made its first flight with a Catalyst engine, targeting a 2023 certification.
Market
The GE Catalyst is intended to cover the market between the H80 and CT7.[ It will compete with the ]Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6
The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Its design was started in 1958, it first ran in February 1960, first flew on 30 May 1961, entered service in 1964 and has been continuously upda ...
, produced at 51,000 units and leading the small turboprop market for 50 years, adding to the sub General Electric H80
The General Electric H-Series is a family of turboprop aircraft engines produced by GE BGA Turboprops. The initial H80 is an updated derivative of the Walter M601, while the H75 and H85 are later derivatives.
Development
The H80 was launched ...
. It has been selected to power the new Beechcraft Denali single engine turboprop aircraft, seating up to 12 passengers at over for . GE plans to invest up to $1 billion in the project, including $400 million for a manufacturing center in Europe.
Design
The Advanced Turboprop could be extended in an range. Its 16:1 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 ...
allow a 20% lower fuel burn and 10% higher cruise power than same size class competition with a 4000–6000 hour mean time between overhauls
Time between overhauls (abbreviated as TBO or TBOH) is the manufacturer's recommended number of running hours or calendar time before an aircraft engine or other component requires overhaul.
On rotorcraft, many components have recommended or ma ...
(MTBO). The compressor
A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor.
Compressors are similar to pumps: both increase the pressure on a fluid and both can transp ...
is derived from the General Electric T700
The General Electric T700 and CT7 are a family of turboshaft and turboprop engines in the class.
Design and development
In 1967, General Electric began work on a new turboshaft engine demonstrator designated the "GE12" in response to US Army i ...
with four axial stages and a single centrifugal stage, with the same 3D aerodynamics design used in the GE9X
The General Electric GE9X is a high-bypass turbofan developed by GE Aviation exclusively for the Boeing 777X. It first ran on the ground in April 2016 and first flew on March 13, 2018; it powered the 777-9's maiden flight in early 2020. It rec ...
. The engine includes variable stator
The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors or biological rotors. Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotating component of the system. In an electric mot ...
vanes (VSVs) and 3D printed
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
parts.
The reverse-flow single-annular combustor
A combustor is a component or area of a gas turbine, ramjet, or scramjet engine where combustion takes place. It is also known as a burner, combustion chamber or flame holder. In a gas turbine engine, the ''combustor'' or combustion chamber is fed ...
resembles the GE-Honda HF120 design. The two-stage single-crystal
In materials science, a single crystal (or single-crystal solid or monocrystalline solid) is a material in which the crystal lattice of the entire sample is continuous and unbroken to the edges of the sample, with no grain boundaries
In m ...
high pressure 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 e ...
will be the first in this class of engines to be fully cooled. The three-stage low-pressure turbine is contra-rotating
Contra-rotating, also referred to as coaxial contra-rotating, is a technique whereby parts of a mechanism rotate in opposite directions about a common axis, usually to minimise the effect of torque. Examples include some aircraft propellers, res ...
. A FADEC
A full authority digital engine (or electronics) control (FADEC) is a system consisting of a digital computer, called an "electronic engine controller" (EEC) or "engine control unit" (ECU), and its related accessories that control all aspects of ai ...
integrated propulsion control system will govern both engine and propeller pitch as an entire system.
Twelve 3D-printed parts replace 855 parts: frames, combustor liners, sump
A sump is a low space that collects often undesirable liquids such as water or chemicals. A sump can also be an infiltration basin used to manage surface runoff water and recharge underground aquifers. Sump can also refer to an area in a cave ...
s, exhaust
Exhaust, exhaustive, or exhaustion may refer to:
Law
*Exhaustion of intellectual property rights, limits to intellectual property rights in patent and copyright law
**Exhaustion doctrine, in patent law
** Exhaustion doctrine under U.S. law, in p ...
case, bearing housings, stationary components in the flowpath, and heat exchanger
A heat exchanger is a system used to transfer heat between a source and a working fluid. Heat exchangers are used in both cooling and heating processes. The fluids may be separated by a solid wall to prevent mixing or they may be in direct contac ...
s. Overall weight is reduced by 5% and brake specific fuel consumption
Brake-specific fuel consumption (BSFC) is a measure of the fuel efficiency of any prime mover that burns fuel and produces rotational, or shaft power. It is typically used for comparing the efficiency of internal combustion engines with a shaft out ...
is improved by 1%. 3D printing is not used for rotating components such as blade
A blade is the portion of a tool, weapon, or machine with an edge that is designed to puncture, chop, slice or scrape surfaces or materials. Blades are typically made from materials that are harder than those they are to be used on. Historic ...
s, discs and rotor
Rotor may refer to:
Science and technology
Engineering
*Rotor (electric), the non-stationary part of an alternator or electric motor, operating with a stationary element so called the stator
* Helicopter rotor, the rotary wing(s) of a rotorcraft ...
s.[ 35% of the engine will be printed at GE, reducing the serialized part count to 35.][ They are printed from a ]titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...
alloy.
The time between overhauls is 4,000 hours, 33% more than its leading competitor.
It is the first turboprop in its class with two stages of variable stator vanes.[
It will feature a composite, five-bladed ]propeller
A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
system from McCauley, a subsidiary of Textron
Textron Inc. is an American industrial conglomerate based in Providence, Rhode Island. Textron's subsidiaries include Arctic Cat, Bell Textron, Textron Aviation (which itself includes the Beechcraft, and Cessna brands), and Lycoming Engines. ...
.
Turboprops now have to be certificated for high-altitude ice crystal
Ice crystals are solid ice exhibiting atomic ordering on various length scales and include hexagonal columns, hexagonal plates, dendritic crystals, and diamond dust.
Formation
The hugely symmetric shapes are due to depositional growth, na ...
icing: a compressor blisk
A blisk (portmanteau of bladed disk) is a turbomachine component comprising both rotor disk and blades. It serves as a critical component of the engine compressor to allow a sufficient quantity of compressed air to enter the engine for combustion ...
has to survive an impact from an ice ball.
This would require a 2 lb (1.13kg) heavier first stage and would hamper the engine aerodynamics.
GE proposed channelling to the engine inlet hot oil from an accessory gearbox sump to avoid growing ice and will test this in a Canadian cold weather facility in summer 2018.
Cooled turbines allow over higher operating temperatures.
Its FADEC, VSVs and a three-stage counter-rotating turbine generates 10% higher cruise power, maintaining peak efficiency at off-design conditions for better lapse rate
The lapse rate is the rate at which an atmospheric variable, normally temperature in Earth's atmosphere, falls with altitude. ''Lapse rate'' arises from the word ''lapse'', in the sense of a gradual fall. In dry air, the adiabatic lapse rate is ...
and altitude power.
The one-piece sump replaces 45 conventional parts and will be printed in just four days down from 14 initially.[
]
Applications
* Beechcraft Denali
The Beechcraft Denali, also known as the Model 220 and previously the Cessna Denali and Textron "Single Engine Turboprop" (SETP), is an American single engine turboprop aircraft under development by Textron Aviation. Announced at EAA AirVent ...
[
* Eurodrone]
* XTI TriFan 600
The XTI TriFan 600 is a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft currently under development by XTI Aircraft Company.
Development
In June 2017, a 65%-scale proof-of-concept began fabrication at Placerville Airport, California, to validate the ...
Specification
See also
References
External links
GE Catalyst turboprop page
*
{{GE aeroengines
2010s turboprop engines
Advanced Turboprop