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 ...
and
turboshaft
A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaftpower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the exhaust ...
The GE27 was developed in the early 1980s under the "Modern Technology Demonstrator Engines" (MTDE) program sponsored by the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
Aviation Applied Technology Directorate
The United States Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) is a tenant activity located at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is a directorate of the Aviation Development Directorate under the Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and En ...
. Sporting a 22:1 pressure ratio, which was a record for single-spool
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 ...
s at the time, the GE27 was GE's unsuccessful submission to power the Bell Boeing V-22 Ospreytiltrotor aircraft. The GE27 also had a compressor air flow of and a turbine temperature of . The GE27 first ran in late 1984, but it unexpectedly lost the V-22 engine competition to the Allison 501-M80C, which was not a participant in the MTDE program.
In the late 1980s, GE used the GE27 as the basis for the commercial development of turboshafts,
turboprops
A turboprop is a turbine engine that drives an aircraft 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 t ...
,
turbofans
The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which achieves mechanical ...
, and
propfan
A propfan, also called an open rotor engine, or unducted fan (as opposed to a ducted fan), is a type of aircraft engine related in concept to both the turboprop and turbofan, but distinct from both. The design is intended to offer the speed an ...
s under the GE38 name. GE formed a 50/50 venture with Garrett (then a division of
AlliedSignal
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 n ...
) to develop the turbofan variant called the CFE (Commercial Fan Engines) CFE738, which used the GE27's gas generator core. One of a range of advertised GE38 unducted fan (UDF) sizes, the takeoff thrust GE38-B5 was for a time the baseline engine for the West German-Chinese MPC-75 regional airliner. The GE38 became the ''T407'' military turboprop in partnership with
Lycoming Engines
Lycoming Engines is a major American manufacturer of aircraft engines. With a factory in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lycoming produces a line of horizontally opposed, air-cooled, four, six and eight-cylinder engines including the only FAA-certi ...
for the Lockheed P-7A, with a maximum takeoff power of 6,000 shp (4,475 kW). First run on December 26, 1989, the T407 engine was scheduled to undergo
flight testing
Flight testing is a branch of aeronautical engineering that develops specialist equipment required for testing aircraft behaviour and systems. Instrumentation systems are developed using proprietary transducers and data acquisition systems. D ...
on a
Lockheed P-3 Orion
The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop anti-submarine and maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. Lockheed based it on the L-188 Electra commercial airliner. The commercial version of the T407 was the ''GLC38'' (General Electric/Lycoming Commercial 38), which was unsuccessfully offered for several turboprop airliners in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The new ''T408'' (''GE38-1B'') is slated to power the new Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion three-engined helicopter for the US Marine Corps. It has a power rating of 7,500 shp. The GE38 completed its first round of ground testing in May 2010. Two test engines have completed over 1,000 hours of ground testing by November 2011. Five test engines will be used in the 5,000-hour test program."GE38 Looking to Take to the Sea" GE Aviation, January 18, 2011. In September 2019, GE delivered the first production T408 engine to the U.S. Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) for the CH-53K. GE also offered the engine to power the U.S. Navy's
Ship-to-Shore Connector
The Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC), also known as the LCAC 100 class, is a system proposed by the United States Navy as a replacement for the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC). It will offer an increased capacity to cope with the growing weight of e ...
Boeing
The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...
as an alternative powerplant on an N CH-47D Chinook testbed helicopter. The helicopter configuration was ground tested beginning in late 2019, followed by an initial flight on September 22, 2020. Conclusion of the test trials was announced on May 12, 2021.
Variants
;T407-GE-400
* Lockheed P-7
;T408-GE-400 (GE38-1B)
* Boeing NCH-47D Chinook (flying testbed)
* Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion
; CFE CFE738: Turbofan variant of the T407-GE-400, used on the Dassault Falcon
;CPX38: Proposed turboprop engine variant of the GE38-1B
;GE38-3: An class derivative engine under consideration by the U.S. military in 2006
;GE38-B5: A contra-rotating, ungeared, unducted fan (UDF) derivative with a bare engine weight (including the UDF) of , a UDF diameter of , and a blade count of 11 on one propeller and 9 on the other; provides a
takeoff
Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff.
For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a t ...
MPC 75
MPC 75 was an aircraft project of the company "MPC Aircraft GmbH" a subsidiary of "Deutsche Airbus". Work on the project was done mainly between 1988 and 1992 in Hamburg, Germany. Predevelopment work was finished, however the project never got ...
German-Chinese regional airliner in the late 1980s
;GLC38: Proposed turboprop variant of the T407-GE-400