The General Electric GE36 was an experimental aircraft engine , a hybrid between a turbofan and a turboprop , known as an unducted fan (UDF) or propfan . The GE36 was developed by General Electric Aircraft Engines , with its CFM International equal partner Snecma taking a 35 percent share of development. Development was cancelled in 1989.
115-508: General Electric (GE) started performing studies and component test work on the concept that would become the UDF in 1981, based on the initial results of early National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) propfan technology studies that the aerospace agency first released to engine makers in 1980. GE then followed up with full-scale development testing of the GE36 starting in 1982. NASA gave GE
230-515: A $ 20.4 million contract in February 1984 to study the concept after the company showed the agency its work in December 1983, as NASA's own propfan research efforts were advancing at a slower pace and were dependent on additional grants from the U.S. Congress . Around the same time, GE was negotiating with Boeing, which felt that the UDF technology could be useful for short-haul airliners, to test
345-465: A 200-seat airliner, was intentionally sized to be larger than the UDF engines that GE was planning for production. The UDF production engines would be 10 ft (3.0 m) in diameter, produce 10,000 hp (7,500 kW), and power airplanes in the 120-160 seat market. At the Paris Air Show in mid-1985, Snecma announced that it had obtained a 35-percent stake in the engine program. Later in
460-617: A GE contra-rotating model test rig in its 9 by 9 ft (2.7 by 2.7 m) low-speed wind tunnel and 8 by 12 ft (2.4 by 3.7 m) transonic wind tunnel. GE unveiled a full-scale model of the engine at the Farnborough Air Show in September, promising a 30-percent reduction in fuel consumption compared to current airliner engines without decreasing the cruise speed. A dozen airlines "invited themselves" to see GE's UDF test facilities near Cincinnati, Ohio , claimed
575-460: A couple of eight-blade, 12-foot diameter (3.7 m) unducted fans. The effective bypass ratio (BPR) was estimated to be about 30:1 for the UDF, which was much larger than the 6:1 bypass ratios of modern turbofans at the time, but less than propeller / turboprop BPRs of approximately 50:1. The optimal mission would be on 1,000 nautical miles (1,200 mi; 1,900 km) flights with a cruise speed of Mach 0.75. In May 1984, Boeing began testing
690-499: A cruise speed of Mach 0.76, hosted the prime minister of Finland, 110 executives from 35 airlines and four leasing companies, and 70 representatives of media, the United States military, suppliers, and other airline manufacturers. The general opinion was that the ride quality was little different than a normal flight, except for light vibration in the back seat during takeoff and climb. On March 25, 1988, McDonnell Douglas declared
805-628: A decade of reliance on the Russians. In 2019, NASA announced the Artemis program , intending to return to the Moon and establish a permanent human presence. This was paired with the Artemis Accords with partner nations to establish rules of behavior and norms of space commercialization on the Moon. In 2023, NASA established the Moon to Mars Program office. The office is designed to oversee
920-468: A demonstration engine on a Boeing 727 testbed aircraft . Agreement to flight test the UDF was reached in April, with flights beginning in late 1986 to assess a 25,000 pounds-force (110 kN) demonstrator based on a General Electric F404 core. The engine would have a pair of six-stage contra-rotating free turbines , each with large diameters running at slow speeds, and they would be connected directly to
1035-431: A five-percent reduction in fuel efficiency compared to the most efficient fan configuration. Data from GE engine test , pages 12 , 17 Related development Comparable engines Related lists National Aeronautics and Space Administration The National Aeronautics and Space Administration ( NASA / ˈ n æ s ə / ) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for
1150-527: A lot of attention at that time. In contradiction to that, officials of Douglas Aircraft – responsible for the A340 competitor MD-11 – questioned the timetable for the SuperFan. In addition to the missing demonstrator and test engine, the feasibility of the required 20,000 SHP gearbox was challenged. Competitor CFM International even completely ruled out the possibility to develop the SuperFan concept in
1265-586: A mechanical problem. GE also confirmed that for production, there would be more blades than on the demonstrator engine, and the number of blades on the front fan would be different from the number on the back fan. After the testbed was reconfigured with the 8x8 engine setup, McDonnell Douglas conducted 22 customer demonstration flights from the Long Beach Airport . These customer demonstrations took place between January 22 and February 26 of 1988. The flights, which typically lasted about an hour and reached
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#17327802571681380-647: A month after the Soviet Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, executing a full orbital spaceflight. NASA's first orbital spaceflight was conducted by John Glenn on February 20, 1962, in the Friendship 7 , making three full orbits before reentering. Glenn had to fly parts of his final two orbits manually due to an autopilot malfunction. The sixth and final Mercury mission was flown by Gordon Cooper in May 1963, performing 22 orbits over 34 hours in
1495-583: A permanently manned space station and to do it within a decade. In 1985, NASA proposed the Space Station Freedom , which both the agency and President Reagan intended to be an international program. While this would add legitimacy to the program, there were concerns within NASA that the international component would dilute its authority within the project, having never been willing to work with domestic or international partners as true equals. There
1610-610: A planned 75 hours) on a Boeing 727 from August 20, 1986 until mid-February 1987, eventually reaching a flight speed of Mach 0.84 and altitude of 39,000 feet (12,000 metres). In April 1987, Boeing formally selected the GE36 as the powerplant for the Boeing 7J7 , deeming the IAE SuperFan ultra-high bypass (UHB) geared turbofan as less fuel efficient and the Pratt & Whitney/Allison 578-DX geared propfan as insufficiently powered. At
1725-650: A possible source of antimatter at the center of the Milky Way and observing that the majority of gamma-ray bursts occur outside of the Milky Way galaxy. The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched from the Columbia on STS-93 in 1999, observing black holes, quasars , supernova , and dark matter . It provided critical observations on the Sagittarius A* black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy and
1840-540: A space station since the agency was created. In 1973, following the end of the Apollo lunar missions, NASA launched its first space station, Skylab , on the final launch of the Saturn V. Skylab reused a significant amount of Apollo and Saturn hardware, with a repurposed Saturn V third stage serving as the primary module for the space station. Damage to Skylab during its launch required spacewalks to be performed by
1955-590: The Faith 7 . The Mercury Program was wildly recognized as a resounding success, achieving its objectives to orbit a human in space, develop tracking and control systems, and identify other issues associated with human spaceflight. While much of NASA's attention turned to space, it did not put aside its aeronautics mission. Early aeronautics research attempted to build upon the X-1's supersonic flight to build an aircraft capable of hypersonic flight . The North American X-15
2070-693: The Army Ballistic Missile Agency would launch Explorer 1 , America's first satellite, on February 1, 1958. The Eisenhower Administration decided to split the United States' military and civil spaceflight programs, which were organized together under the Defense Department 's Advanced Research Projects Agency . NASA was established on July 29, 1958, with the signing of the National Aeronautics and Space Act and it began operations on October 1, 1958. As
2185-803: The Bell X-1 in a joint program with the U.S. Air Force . NACA's interest in space grew out of its rocketry program at the Pilotless Aircraft Research Division. The Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik 1 ushered in the Space Age and kicked off the Space Race . Despite NACA's early rocketry program, the responsibility for launching the first American satellite fell to the Naval Research Laboratory 's Project Vanguard , whose operational issues ensured
2300-677: The Big Bang . The James Webb Space Telescope , named after the NASA administrator who lead the Apollo program, is an infrared observatory launched in 2021. The James Webb Space Telescope is a direct successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, intended to observe the formation of the first galaxies. Other space telescopes include the Kepler space telescope , launched in 2009 to identify planets orbiting extrasolar stars that may be Terran and possibly harbor life. The first exoplanet that
2415-666: The Boeing 747 , Boeing 777 , and Boeing 787 Dreamliner . General Electric donated one of the GE36 engines to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum via the Naval Air Systems Command in 1991. A General Electric F404 military turbofan on loan from the American government was used as the basis for the GE36 prototype. The F404 mixed exhaust stream discharged through a turbine which drove two contra-rotating stages of fans. Although
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#17327802571682530-698: The Earth Observing System ; advancing heliophysics through the efforts of the Science Mission Directorate 's Heliophysics Research Program; exploring bodies throughout the Solar System with advanced robotic spacecraft such as New Horizons and planetary rovers such as Perseverance ; and researching astrophysics topics, such as the Big Bang , through the James Webb Space Telescope ,
2645-797: The Environmental Science Services Administration on a series of weather satellites and the agency launched its experimental Applications Technology Satellites into geosynchronous orbit. NASA's first dedicated Earth observation satellite, Landsat , was launched in 1972. This led to NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration jointly developing the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite and discovering Ozone depletion . NASA had been pursuing spaceplane development since
2760-691: The Europa and observed that the moon may hold ice or liquid water. A joint NASA- European Space Agency - Italian Space Agency mission, Cassini–Huygens , was sent to Saturn 's moon Titan , which, along with Mars and Europa, are the only celestial bodies in the Solar System suspected of being capable of harboring life. Cassini discovered three new moons of Saturn and the Huygens probe entered Titan's atmosphere. The mission discovered evidence of liquid hydrocarbon lakes on Titan and subsurface water oceans on
2875-641: The International Aero Engines board decided in April 1987 to stop the development of the SuperFan, which forced Airbus to partly re-design the A340. In July 1986 IAE confirmed to conduct a preliminary design study for a concept examining a high-bypass engine which used the V2500 core components. The engine's projected maximum thrust was 28,000–32,000 lbf while having only 80% of the V2500's specific fuel consumption . Prior to that study
2990-784: The Johnson Space Center as the lead center for the design, development, and manufacturing of the Space Shuttle orbiter , while the Marshall Space Flight Center would lead the development of the launch system. NASA's series of lifting body aircraft, culminating in the joint NASA-U.S. Air Force Martin Marietta X-24 , directly informed the development of the Space Shuttle and future hypersonic flight aircraft. Official development of
3105-664: The Mars Global Surveyor orbiter and Mars Pathfinder , deploying the first Mars rover, Sojourner . During the early 2000s, the 2001 Mars Odyssey orbiter reached the planet and in 2004 the Sprit and Opportunity rovers landed on the Red Planet. This was followed in 2005 by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and 2007 Phoenix Mars lander. The 2012 landing of Curiosity discovered that
3220-614: The Orbiting Geophysical Observatory in the 1960s and 1970s to look down at Earth and observe its interactions with the Sun. The Uhuru satellite was the first dedicated x-ray telescope, mapping 85% of the sky and discovering a large number of black holes . Launched in the 1990s and early 2000s, the Great Observatories program are among NASA's most powerful telescopes. The Hubble Space Telescope
3335-658: The STS-1 mission, designed to serve as a flight test for the new spaceplane. NASA intended for the Space Shuttle to replace expendable launch systems like the Air Force's Atlas , Delta , and Titan and the European Space Agency 's Ariane . The Space Shuttle's Spacelab payload, developed by the European Space Agency, increased the scientific capabilities of shuttle missions over anything NASA
3450-635: The STS-60 mission in 1994 and the Discovery rendezvoused, but did not dock with, the Russian Mir in the STS-63 mission. This was followed by Atlantis' STS-71 mission where it accomplished the initial intended mission for the Space Shuttle, docking with a space station and transferring supplies and personnel. The Shuttle- Mir program would continue until 1998, when a series of orbital accidents on
3565-477: The Space Race when the Soviet Union gave up its lunar ambitions. As the first human to step on the surface of the Moon, Neil Armstrong uttered the now famous words: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. NASA would conduct six total lunar landings as part of the Apollo program, with Apollo 17 concluding the program in 1972. Wernher von Braun had advocated for NASA to develop
General Electric GE36 - Misplaced Pages Continue
3680-620: The Space Shuttle began in 1972, with Rockwell International contracted to design the orbiter and engines, Martin Marietta for the external fuel tank , and Morton Thiokol for the solid rocket boosters . NASA acquired six orbiters: the Enterprise , Columbia , Challenger , Discovery , Atlantis , and Endeavour The Space Shuttle program also allowed NASA to make major changes to its Astronaut Corps . While almost all previous astronauts were Air Force or Naval test pilots,
3795-620: The United States Congress created the Aviation Section of the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1914 and established NACA in 1915 to foster aeronautical research and development. Over the next forty years, NACA would conduct aeronautical research in support of the U.S. Air Force , U.S. Army , U.S. Navy , and the civil aviation sector. After the end of World War II , NACA became interested in the possibilities of guided missiles and supersonic aircraft, developing and testing
3910-685: The combustion chamber. The engine configuration selected for the MD-91 and MD-92 was designed to meet the Chapter 4 community noise standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization 's (ICAO's) Committee on Aviation Environmental Protection (CAEP), which would go into effect in 2006 and be a reduction of ten effective perceived noise decibels ( EPNdB ) from the existing Chapter 3 standards that were established in 1977. The regulatory compliance, however, caused
4025-405: The inner planets . Despite these successes, Congress was unwilling to fund further interplanetary missions and NASA Administrator James Webb suspended all future interplanetary probes to focus resources on the Apollo program. Following the conclusion of the Apollo program, NASA resumed launching interplanetary probes and expanded its space science program. The first planet tagged for exploration
4140-511: The 150-seat 7J7 mid-range aircraft, with the SuperFan mounted under the wings instead of the aft fuselage mounting of the 7J7's baseline engine, the General Electric GE36 unducted fan. (The 7J7, not the A340, was actually IAE's primary target aircraft for the SuperFan.) Airbus was also considering the SuperFan for a 175-seat stretched version of its upcoming Airbus A320 narrowbody aircraft. First voices indicating not only
4255-524: The 1960s, blending the administration's dual aeronautics and space missions. NASA viewed a spaceplane as part of a larger program, providing routine and economical logistical support to a space station in Earth orbit that would be used as a hub for lunar and Mars missions. A reusable launch vehicle would then have ended the need for expensive and expendable boosters like the Saturn V . In 1969, NASA designated
4370-728: The 1968–1972 Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station, and the Space Shuttle . Currently, NASA supports the International Space Station (ISS) along with the Commercial Crew Program , and oversees the development of the Orion spacecraft and the Space Launch System for the lunar Artemis program . NASA's science division is focused on better understanding Earth through
4485-542: The 4,700 nmi trip (5,400 mi; 8,700 km) in Farnborough Airport in England on August 23. The trip was made to perform daily public demonstration flights at the Farnborough Air Show on September 4–11, 1988. Private flight demonstrations for invited airline executives were to be given before the air show, and McDonnell Douglas was considering flying the testbed to Western Europe before returning to
4600-679: The 44 commercial companies that contracted with NASA to deploy their satellites to return to expendable launch vehicles. When the Space Shuttle returned to flight with the STS-26 mission, it had undergone significant modifications to improve its reliability and safety. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Russian Federation and United States initiated the Shuttle- Mir program . The first Russian cosmonaut flew on
4715-419: The A340 with SuperFan engines. First deliveries were agreed for April 1992. Reinhardt Abraham (vice chairman of the Lufthansa board) stated that Lufthansa acknowledges the risks connected to the SuperFan program but got binding guarantees by IAE for the performance data and the delivery date. He also described the SuperFan as a rather conservative technology compared to the several Propfan programs that gained
General Electric GE36 - Misplaced Pages Continue
4830-450: The Air Force as the military space lead. Plans for human spaceflight began in the U.S. Armed Forces prior to NASA's creation. The Air Force's Man in Space Soonest project formed in 1956, coupled with the Army's Project Adam, served as the foundation for Project Mercury . NASA established the Space Task Group to manage the program, which would conduct crewed sub-orbital flights with the Army's Redstone rockets and orbital flights with
4945-448: The Air Force's Atlas launch vehicles. While NASA intended for its first astronauts to be civilians, President Eisenhower directed that they be selected from the military. The Mercury 7 astronauts included three Air Force pilots, three Navy aviators, and one Marine Corps pilot. On May 5, 1961, Alan Shepard became the first American to enter space, performing a suborbital spaceflight in the Freedom 7 . This flight occurred less than
5060-410: The Apollo program. Despite attacks on the goal of landing astronauts on the Moon from the former president Dwight Eisenhower and 1964 presidential candidate Barry Goldwater , President Kennedy was able to protect NASA's growing budget, of which 50% went directly to human spaceflight and it was later estimated that, at its height, 5% of Americans worked on some aspect of the Apollo program. Mirroring
5175-478: The Army Ballistic Missile Agency's original Saturn I . The Apollo spacecraft was designed and built by North American Aviation , while the Apollo Lunar Module was designed and built by Grumman . To develop the spaceflight skills and equipment required for a lunar mission, NASA initiated Project Gemini . Using a modified Air Force Titan II launch vehicle, the Gemini capsule could hold two astronauts for flights of over two weeks. Gemini pioneered
5290-426: The Department of Defense's program management concept using redundant systems in building the first intercontinental ballistic missiles, NASA requested the Air Force assign Major General Samuel C. Phillips to the space agency where he would serve as the director of the Apollo program. Development of the Saturn V rocket was led by Wernher von Braun and his team at the Marshall Space Flight Center , derived from
5405-468: The IAE shareholders Rolls-Royce plc , Pratt & Whitney and MTU Aero Engines had examined several configuration for a high-bypass engine, including several design features like a variable fan blade pitch , a geared fan or counterrotating concepts (geared as well as ungeared). Review of these design studies in June indicated the design of such a high-bypass engine as a single-rotation, geared fan configuration with variable blade pitch. The fan diameter
5520-439: The Keplar space telescope confirmed was Kepler-22b , orbiting within the habitable zone of its star. NASA also launched a number of different satellites to study Earth, such as Television Infrared Observation Satellite (TIROS) in 1960, which was the first weather satellite. NASA and the United States Weather Bureau cooperated on future TIROS and the second generation Nimbus program of weather satellites. It also worked with
5635-433: The MD-80 testbed was on May 18, 1987. Initially the engine had an 8-blade forward and 8-blade aft fan configuration, and then it was replaced on the testbed by the second GE36 demonstrator engine, which had a 10-blade forward / 8-blade aft setup and completed 33 hours of flight tests beginning on August 14, 1987. Despite being quieter in that configuration, the engine was swapped back to the original 8x8 configuration because of
5750-459: The MD-91X and 20,000–22,000 lbf (89–98 kN) for the 7J7 and MD-92X, but the thrust requirements were later changed to 22,000 lbf (98 kN) and 25,000 lbf (110 kN), respectively. The power turbine was a six-stage turbine plus inlet and outlet guide vanes. The twelve turbine blade rows rotated alternate rows in opposite directions. Each stage was a pair of rotors ; there were no stators (static vanes), which usually follow
5865-448: The Martian interior. The 2021 Perseverance rover carried the first extraplanetary aircraft, a helicopter named Ingenuity . NASA also launched missions to Mercury in 2004, with the MESSENGER probe demonstrating as the first use of a solar sail . NASA also launched probes to the outer Solar System starting in the 1960s. Pioneer 10 was the first probe to the outer planets, flying by Jupiter , while Pioneer 11 provided
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#17327802571685980-402: The Moon and going to Mars. Embracing this approach, NASA's Commercial Crew Program started by contracting cargo delivery to the International Space Station and flew its first operational contracted mission on SpaceX Crew-1 . This marked the first time since the retirement of the Space Shuttle that NASA was able to launch its own astronauts on an American spacecraft from the United States, ending
6095-404: The Moon and returning him safely to Earth by the end of the 1960s and installed James E. Webb as NASA administrator to achieve this goal. On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy openly declared this goal in his "Urgent National Needs" speech to the United States Congress, declaring: I believe this Nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on
6210-427: The Moon and returning him safely to Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. Kennedy gave his " We choose to go to the Moon " speech the next year, on September 12, 1962 at Rice University , where he addressed the nation hoping to reinforce public support for
6325-441: The Paris Air Show in June 1987, GE and Snecma noted that they were building the components for a product design engine that would test on a Boeing 727 in 1989. However, Boeing in August 1987 postponed the service entry date of the 7J7 from 1992 to 1993, and then it postponed the target date indefinitely in December 1987. GE's proof-of-concept engine was installed on a McDonnell Douglas MD-80 on April 5, 1987, and its first flight on
6440-409: The Russians be included. In 1993, the Clinton Administration announced that the Space Station Freedom would become the International Space Station in an agreement with the Russian Federation. This allowed the Russians to maintain their space program through an infusion of American currency to maintain their status as one of the two premier space programs. While the United States built and launched
6555-507: The Russians to fly to the International Space Station for four days, despite the opposition of NASA to the idea. Advocates of this new commercial approach for NASA included former astronaut Buzz Aldrin , who remarked that it would return NASA to its roots as a research and development agency, with commercial entities actually operating the space systems. Having corporations take over orbital operations would also allow NASA to focus all its efforts on deep space exploration and returning humans to
6670-422: The Solar System. Mars has long been a planet of intense fascination for NASA, being suspected of potentially having harbored life. Mariner 5 was the first NASA spacecraft to flyby Mars, followed by Mariner 6 and Mariner 7 . Mariner 9 was the first orbital mission to Mars. Launched in 1975, Viking program consisted of two landings on Mars in 1976. Follow-on missions would not be launched until 1996, with
6785-404: The Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, NASA was forced to rely on Russian Soyuz launches for its astronauts and the 2011 retirement of the Space Shuttle accelerated the station's completion. In the 1980s, right after the first flight of the Space Shuttle, NASA started a joint program with the Department of Defense to develop the Rockwell X-30 National Aerospace Plane. NASA realized that
6900-418: The Space Shuttle allowed NASA to begin recruiting more non-military scientific and technical experts. A prime example is Sally Ride , who became the first American woman to fly in space on STS-7 . This new astronaut selection process also allowed NASA to accept exchange astronauts from U.S. allies and partners for the first time. The first Space Shuttle flight occurred in 1981, when the Columbia launched on
7015-443: The Space Shuttle and expand space exploration beyond low Earth orbit. Constellation was intended to use a significant amount of former Space Shuttle equipment and return astronauts to the Moon. This program was canceled by the Obama Administration . Former astronauts Neil Armstrong , Gene Cernan , and Jim Lovell sent a letter to President Barack Obama to warn him that if the United States did not get new human spaceflight ability,
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#17327802571687130-478: The Space Shuttle began flying, selling it as an orbital laboratory, repair station, and a jumping off point for lunar and Mars missions. NASA found a strong advocate in President Ronald Reagan , who declared in a 1984 speech: America has always been greatest when we dared to be great. We can reach for greatness again. We can follow our dreams to distant stars, living and working in space for peaceful, economic, and scientific gain. Tonight I am directing NASA to develop
7245-444: The Space Shuttle, while a massive technological accomplishment, would not be able to live up to all its promises. Designed to be a single-stage-to-orbit spaceplane, the X-30 had both civil and military applications. With the end of the Cold War , the X-30 was canceled in 1992 before reaching flight status. Following the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster in 2003, President Bush started the Constellation program to smoothly replace
7360-483: The Space Shuttle. Due to technical challenges, the spacecraft was cancelled in 2001. Despite this, it was the first time a commercial space company directly expended a significant amount of its resources into spacecraft development. The advent of space tourism also forced NASA to challenge its assumption that only governments would have people in space. The first space tourist was Dennis Tito , an American investment manager and former aerospace engineer who contracted with
7475-507: The Space Station Freedom was controversial, with much of the debate centering on cost. Several redesigns to reduce cost were conducted in the early 1990s, stripping away much of its functions. Despite calls for Congress to terminate the program, it continued, in large part because by 1992 it had created 75,000 jobs across 39 states. By 1993, President Bill Clinton attempted to significantly reduce NASA's budget and directed costs be significantly reduced, aerospace industry jobs were not lost, and
7590-410: The SuperFan as an engineering study, the vice chairman of the Lufthansa board, Reinhardt Abraham, made clear that the Lufthansa board had received verbal as well as written confirmations that the SuperFan was a fixed development program. He admitted that Lufthansa had realized the risks in the SuperFan program but had relied on the experience and reputation of the IAE shareholding companies. When asked for
7705-407: The SuperFan was planned to be 107 in (2.72 m), resulting in a nacelle with a diameter of 120 in (3.05 m) made from composite materials . To ensure a good performance also in partload ratings and to support the thrust reverser , a variable-pitch mechanism for the 18 fan blades would have been installed. The blades itself were designed as hollow titanium blades. The fan blades would be shrouded by
7820-426: The SuperFan. This assumption is supported by the fact, that a core engine which is optimized for a conventional turbofan, can not be used for a geared turbofan without extensive modifications to prevent compressor surge during low thrust ratings. Lufthansa's engineers recommended against buying the A340 because of doubts of the engine's readiness by 1992, but they were overruled by Lufthansa chairman Heinz Ruhnau with
7935-399: The U.S. risked become a second or third-rate space power. As early as the Reagan Administration, there had been calls for NASA to expand private sector involvement in space exploration rather than do it all in-house. In the 1990s, NASA and Lockheed Martin entered into an agreement to develop the Lockheed Martin X-33 demonstrator of the VentureStar spaceplane, which was intended to replace
8050-409: The US's premier aeronautics agency, NACA formed the core of NASA's new structure by reassigning 8,000 employees and three major research laboratories. NASA also proceeded to absorb the Naval Research Laboratory's Project Vanguard, the Army's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and the Army Ballistic Missile Agency under Wernher von Braun . This left NASA firmly as the United States' civil space lead and
8165-493: The US. At the air show, McDonnell Douglas and GE began marketing discussions with seven airlines in the US and six in western Europe; they hoped to gain about 100 airline commitments by mid-1989 to launch the MD-91 and MD-92 programs, with entry into service in 1993 first for the MD-91, and then the MD-92 entering service a half-year later. GE36 testing on the MD-80 finished that month after 137 flights and nearly 240 flight hours. In total, there were 281 hours of flight tests between
8280-577: The backing of Franz Josef Strauss , who was both a Lufthansa supervisory board member and the Airbus chairman. When it was clear that the SuperFan would not be available, Airbus decided to offer the CFM56-5C on the A340. In order to achieve comparable performance data to the SuperFan-powered version, the wingspan was extended by 2.6 meters to allow a larger fuel capacity. The fan diameter of
8395-486: The civil space program , aeronautics research, and space research. Established in 1958 , it succeeded the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) to give the U.S. space development effort a distinct civilian orientation, emphasizing peaceful applications in space science . It has since led most of America's space exploration programs, including Project Mercury , Project Gemini ,
8510-462: The decade, the GE36 became the power plant of choice for proposed aircraft such as the Boeing 7J7 twin-aisle airliner and the MD-91 and MD-92 derivatives of McDonnell Douglas 's popular MD-80 single-aisle airplane. The engine underwent 2,500 hours of model scale testing, after which a prototype was built. The prototype engine was ground-tested for 162 hours. The GE36 prototype then flew 25 times, accumulating over 41 hours of flight test time (out of
8625-459: The delay's reason, he revealed that in a meeting at the beginning of 1987 IAE presented several technical problems that had arisen: not only the gearbox was mentioned, but also the variable-pitch mechanism and the bypass outlet duct. But in Abraham's opinion these problems could have been solved by investing more, he blamed the problems with the V2500 high-pressure compressor as the trigger to cancel
8740-470: The demonstrator engines had 8x8 and 10x8 fan blade configurations, the most efficient setup that was tested had a 12x10 blade configuration. The scimitar shape of the fan rotor blades could operate at high velocities to match turbojet or turbofan speeds, allowing the engine to power the proposed Boeing 7J7 airliner at a Mach 0.83 cruise speed. The production blades for the MD-91/MD-92 versions of
8855-484: The design engineering of a full gas generator and a product propulsor. The downfall of this engine at the time was economic conditions (mostly a major drop in oil prices) post OPEC oil embargo. Even though these engines never made it past development and prototype testing, GE has retained the carbon composite technology behind the lightweight fan blades. Carbon fiber blades are currently being used in engines ( General Electric GE90 and General Electric GEnx ) that power
8970-475: The design of the A340 was modified. Compared to the original design's range of 7,000 nautical miles , the revised version – designated the A340-200 – was projected to have a range up to 8,000 nautical miles with full passenger load. Airbus decided on 26 December 1986 to offer the SuperFan as primary engine option for the A340. In late January, Boeing announced that it was studying the SuperFan as an option for
9085-479: The engine in 1992. Airbus was formally notified about the technical risk in mid-March. He insisted that the problems IAE faced at the same time with the high-pressure compressor of the V2500 were not connected to the SuperFan delay. IAE also contended that the SuperFan was not more than an engineering study and they never committed to develop that engine. Nevertheless, further studies of the geared turbofan concept were announced. In contradiction to IAE's understanding of
9200-427: The engine maker, but not just due to the UDF's higher fuel efficiency. Airlines also appreciated the UDF's lack of a gearbox , which transfers power from the turbine to the propeller while allowing both to run at their respective optimal rotational speeds , but was difficult to design reliably for high speed and power. They also liked that the UDF had contra-rotating fans, as opposed to the single-rotating fans that NASA
9315-496: The engine were to be designed for Mach 0.78–0.80 cruise. The UDF fan blades were 40 in (100 cm) in length, and the Rohr Industries -made rotating cowls that fit around the base of the blades were 62 in (160 cm) in diameter. The blades for the initial tests were manufactured directly by General Electric, but the blades for the flight tests were then made by local Ohio manufacturer Hartzell Propeller . For
9430-420: The first close up view of the planet. Both probes became the first objects to leave the Solar System. The Voyager program launched in 1977, conducting flybys of Jupiter and Saturn , Neptune , and Uranus on a trajectory to leave the Solar System. The Galileo spacecraft, deployed from the Space Shuttle flight STS-34 , was the first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter, discovering evidence of subsurface oceans on
9545-515: The first crew to make it habitable and operational. Skylab hosted nine missions and was decommissioned in 1974 and deorbited in 1979, two years prior to the first launch of the Space Shuttle and any possibility of boosting its orbit. In 1975, the Apollo–Soyuz mission was the first ever international spaceflight and a major diplomatic accomplishment between the Cold War rivals, which also marked
9660-402: The first humans to see the Earth as a globe in space, the first to witness an Earthrise , and the first to see and manually photograph the far side of the Moon. The first lunar landing was conducted by Apollo 11. Commanded by Neil Armstrong with astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins , Apollo 11 was one of the most significant missions in NASA's history, marking the end of
9775-830: The flight test program complete. The MD-80 testbed had performed 93 flights and 165 flight test hours, cruising at a speed up to Mach 0.865 and an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,000 metres). McDonnell Douglas reinstalled the GE36 engine onto the MD-80 testbed for additional flight tests in July 1988. The testbed airplane was then flown across the Atlantic Ocean , leaving its home test airfield of Edwards Air Force Base in California to stop in Minneapolis, Minnesota , Gander, Newfoundland , Canada, and Keflavik, Iceland before ending
9890-414: The four Great Observatories , and associated programs. The Launch Services Program oversees launch operations for its uncrewed launches . NASA traces its roots to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA). Despite being the birthplace of aviation, by 1914 the United States recognized that it was far behind Europe in aviation capability. Determined to regain American leadership in aviation,
10005-425: The front and back propellers, respectively, but they were expected to weigh less than 20 lb (9.1 kg) by the time the engine entered production. While the GE36 demonstrator had a rated thrust of 25,000 lbf (110 kN), the GE36 family of engines would offer a range covering 12,000 to 30,000 lbf (53 to 133 kN) of thrust. The engine was initially sized to produce 14,000 lbf (62 kN) for
10120-410: The high risks associated with the new geared turbofan technology but also the potential failure to deliver the SuperFan in time appeared in February 1987. In addition to the fact that the V2500 was not certified yet, not even a mockup of the SuperFan was published, not to mention a test engine. At the same time Deutsche Lufthansa and Airbus signed a preliminary contract for 15 orders and 15 options of
10235-451: The last flight of the Apollo capsule. Flown in 1975, a U.S. Apollo spacecraft docked with a Soviet Soyuz capsule. During the 1960s, NASA started its space science and interplanetary probe program. The Mariner program was its flagship program, launching probes to Venus , Mars , and Mercury in the 1960s. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory was the lead NASA center for robotic interplanetary exploration, making significant discoveries about
10350-415: The list of SuperFan customers included Finnair , UTA , Sabena , and Alitalia . In a board meeting on 7 April 1987, however, the SuperFan program was officially announced as "indefinitely delayed". No official statement was made after that decision, but Ralph Robins, managing director of Rolls-Royce and board member of IAE, indicated problems with the low-pressure system posed a serious threat to deliver
10465-515: The majority of the International Space Station, Russia, Canada, Japan, and the European Space Agency all contributed components. Despite NASA's insistence that costs would be kept at a budget of $ 17.4, they kept rising and NASA had to transfer funds from other programs to keep the International Space Station solvent. Ultimately, the total cost of the station was $ 150 billion, with the United States paying for two-thirds.Following
10580-634: The moon of Enceladus , which could harbor life. Finally launched in 2006, the New Horizons mission was the first spacecraft to visit Pluto and the Kuiper Belt . Beyond interplanetary probes, NASA has launched many space telescopes . Launched in the 1960s, the Orbiting Astronomical Observatory were NASA's first orbital telescopes, providing ultraviolet, gamma-ray, x-ray, and infrared observations. NASA launched
10695-403: The production engines, the blades were to be made by British composite propeller specialist Dowty Rotol . The maximum fan diameter for the UDF demonstrator was 140 in (356 cm), while the maximum diameter for the UDF production engines was planned to be 128 in (325 cm). During the prototype/testing phase, the fan blades weighed 22.5 and 21.5 lb (10.2 and 9.8 kg) each on
10810-625: The radiation levels on Mars were equal to those on the International Space Station , greatly increasing the possibility of Human exploration, and observed the key chemical ingredients for life to occur. In 2013, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution ( MAVEN ) mission observed the Martian upper atmosphere and space environment and in 2018, the Interior exploration using Seismic Investigations Geodesy, and Heat Transport ( InSight ) studied
10925-413: The relative velocity, so the engine did not require a reduction gearbox to drive the fan. The GE36 had a hub-to-blade tip radius ratio of 0.425, which as a gearless design reflected about a 75 percent higher value than for geared propfan designs. This characteristic occurred because the hub had to enclose a large turbine diameter; due to the low rotational speed demanded by the contra-rotating propellers,
11040-502: The remaining time until 1992. Despite these concerns, Airbus was able to announce at a meeting of the supervisory board on 13 March 1987 a total of 104 commitments from nine customers for their A330 /A340 program. On 3 April, Northwest Airlines announced their commitment for up to 20 A340s with SuperFan engines. Of the now-ten customers for the A330/A340 program, eight ordered the A340 with SuperFan engines; in addition to Lufthansa ,
11155-507: The satellites were repaired and relaunched. Despite ushering in a new era of spaceflight, where NASA was contracting launch services to commercial companies, the Space Shuttle was criticized for not being as reusable and cost-effective as advertised. In 1986, Challenger disaster on the STS-51L mission resulted in the loss of the spacecraft and all seven astronauts on launch, grounding the entire space shuttle fleet for 36 months and forced
11270-676: The separation of dark and regular matter during galactic collisions. Finally, the Spitzer Space Telescope is an infrared telescope launched in 2003 from a Delta II rocket. It is in a trailing orbit around the Sun, following the Earth and discovered the existence of brown dwarf stars . Other telescopes, such as the Cosmic Background Explorer and the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe , provided evidence to support
11385-560: The setback caused by the Apollo 1 fire, which killed three astronauts, the program proceeded. Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon . The crew orbited the Moon ten times on December 24 and 25, 1968, and then traveled safely back to Earth . The three Apollo 8 astronauts— Frank Borman , James Lovell , and William Anders —were
11500-403: The single-rotor section to straighten out the flow. The front propeller and the front half of each stage are attached to a rotating outer casing that encloses the turbine rotor blades, while the back propeller and the back half of each stage are attached conventionally to a central shaft. The counter-rotating turbine can run at half the rpm of a conventional turbine, since counter-rotation doubles
11615-549: The space shuttle be retired. In 2006, the Space Shuttle returned to flight, conducting several mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope , but was retired following the STS-135 resupply mission to the International Space Station in 2011. NASA never gave up on the idea of a space station after Skylab's reentry in 1979. The agency began lobbying politicians to support building a larger space station as soon as
11730-481: The space station spelled an end to the program. In 2003, a second space shuttle was destroyed when the Columbia was destroyed upon reentry during the STS-107 mission, resulting in the loss of the spacecraft and all seven astronauts. This accident marked the beginning of the retiring of the Space Shuttle program, with President George W. Bush directing that upon the completion of the International Space Station,
11845-570: The turbine had to be wider than usual to generate enough power. GE's UDF had a bypass ratio of 35, which was about halfway between the IAE SuperFan's BPR of 17 and the PW-Allison 578-DX's BPR of 56. The contra-rotating propellers spun at a maximum rotational speed of at least 1,393 rpm . The engine demonstrated an extremely low specific fuel consumption (SFC) of 0.232 lb/(lbf⋅h) (6.6 g/(kN⋅s)) at ground level, which GE claimed
11960-412: The two airplanes. With demonstrator flight testing completed, the focus moved to construction of a new core (instead of the off-the-shelf F404) to increase efficiency. The compressor , combustor , and turbine had all been run separately by late 1988, and by mid-1989 the new core engine had been tested for about 50 hours. At the time of the project cancellation later in 1989, GE and Snecma were working on
12075-579: The use of fuel cells instead of batteries, and conducted the first American spacewalks and rendezvous operations . The Ranger Program was started in the 1950s as a response to Soviet lunar exploration, however most missions ended in failure. The Lunar Orbiter program had greater success, mapping the surface in preparation for Apollo landings and measured Selenography , conducted meteoroid detection, and measured radiation levels. The Surveyor program conducted uncrewed lunar landings and takeoffs, as well as taking surface and regolith observations. Despite
12190-601: The various projects, mission architectures and associated timelines relevant to lunar and Mars exploration and science. IAE SuperFan The IAE V2500SF SuperFan was a design study for a high-bypass geared turbofan derived from the IAE V2500 . It was offered as the primary engine option for the Airbus A340-200 and 300 in January 1987. Although several customers signed preliminary contracts for this variant,
12305-461: Was Venus , sharing many similar characteristics to Earth. First visited by American Mariner 2 spacecraft, Venus was observed to be a hot and inhospitable planet. Follow-on missions included the Pioneer Venus project in the 1970s and Magellan , which performed radar mapping of Venus' surface in the 1980s and 1990s. Future missions were flybys of Venus, on their way to other destinations in
12420-489: Was a joint NASA–U.S. Air Force program, with the hypersonic test aircraft becoming the first non-dedicated spacecraft to cross from the atmosphere to outer space. The X-15 also served as a testbed for Apollo program technologies, as well as ramjet and scramjet propulsion. Escalations in the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union prompted President John F. Kennedy to charge NASA with landing an American on
12535-683: Was able to previously accomplish. NASA launched its first commercial satellites on the STS-5 mission and in 1984, the STS-41-C mission conducted the world's first on-orbit satellite servicing mission when the Challenger captured and repaired the malfunctioning Solar Maximum Mission satellite. It also had the capability to return malfunctioning satellite to Earth, like it did with the Palapa B2 and Westar 6 satellites. Once returned to Earth,
12650-545: Was also a concern with sharing sensitive space technologies with the Europeans, which had the potential to dilute America's technical lead. Ultimately, an international agreement to develop the Space Station Freedom program would be signed with thirteen countries in 1985, including the European Space Agency member states, Canada , and Japan . Despite its status as the first international space program,
12765-603: Was expected to range from 108 to 118 in while having a bypass ratio of 18:1 to 20:1. Availability of the engine was estimated between 1992 and 1994. In December 1986 the V2500 SuperFan was officially offered to Airbus as powerplant for the Airbus A340 being developed at that time. With that offer, more design details were revealed. In addition to the V2500 core engine, IAE claimed to be able to derive all further components from proven technology. The RB.211 -sized fan
12880-497: Was launched in 1990 on STS-31 from the Discovery and could view galaxies 15 billion light years away. A major defect in the telescope's mirror could have crippled the program, had NASA not used computer enhancement to compensate for the imperfection and launched five Space Shuttle servicing flights to replace the damaged components. The Compton Gamma Ray Observatory was launched from the Atlantis on STS-37 in 1991, discovering
12995-428: Was over 20% more efficient than any of the existing turbofans on offer. GE had also predicted a cruise SFC of 0.49 for the demonstrator engine; however, the cruise SFC would drop to 0.40-0.41 with a new gas generator design called "Supercore," compared with 0.56 for existing turbofans. The two-spool core of the gas generator would have a pressure ratio of about 36. Snecma was to design the high-pressure compressor (HPC) and
13110-429: Was primarily studying. The double fans kept the diameter for a 140-seat airliner significantly smaller than the 20 ft (6.1 m) diameters the airlines feared. The unducted fan demonstrator would have a diameter of 11 ft 8 in (3.56 m), a power rating of 20,000 horsepower (15,000 kilowatts), and a thrust rating of 25,000 lbf (110 kN). The UDF demonstrator, which would have enough power to drive
13225-408: Was to be driven through a Tyne -technology gearbox. This configuration had a 20:1 bypass ratio and was expected to provide a thrust of 30,000 lbf. Due to the application of existing technology, the costs as well as the risks for the SuperFan development program were appraised lower than those of the competing CFM56-5 engine. Due to the lower specific fuel consumption and higher thrust rating,
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