The LEAP engine, the high-bypass turbofan produced by CFM International, the 50-50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, has built a reputation as a leader in efficiency and asset utilization. In airline service, it is demonstrating better durability in neutral environments than the previous-generation CFM56 product line at the same point in that engine’s life.
Anyone who visited the GE Aerospace chalet last week at the Paris Air Show, on the grounds of Le Bourget Airport, came away with three distinct impressions: The market for engines is growing, lean is working, and new technologies are on the rise.
Currently showing on Petter Hörnfeldt’s popular aviation-themed YouTube channel is a video entitled “Revolutionizing Flight! The Amazing Potential of the CFM RISE Engine.” On screen, Hörnfeldt wears a black T-shirt sporting the “Mentour Crew” logo — a reference to Mentour Pilot, the name of his channel and its sister channel, Mentour Now!
The weather was mostly fair on April 24, 1982, when a Delta Air Lines plane flew on a routine flight from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia. It was hardly routine, however, for CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines. That flight, on a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-71 aircraft, marked the first commercial use of a CFM engine, the CFM56-2.