Originally Posted by
57mm
Buster15, the Tiff force owes you and all involved in the engine programme a vote of thanks. The Tiff donks are simply outstanding.
That is very much appreciated. The EJ200 development programme was led by some outstanding engineers. And the Specification Requirements were extremely stringent. In particular the 'iluties'; reliability, maintainability, testability, durability and supportability.
It made good use of the very latest in computer modelling and materials.
And tried to learn from the previous RB199 programme.
In reality, it is a much simpler engine configuration than the 3 spool. And benefitted massively from the XG40 demonstrator programme. Something the RB199 never had.
Edit.
Please don't take this as any form of criticism of the RB199. That could not be further from the truth.
But the EJ200 benefitted from a number of things there 199 did not.
And an important one was time.
To develop a brand new state of the art engine at the same time as the aircraft was a huge risk. And absolutely everything had to be done from scratch with almost zero experience to fall back on.
And the timescales were extremely tight.
First engine test September1971.
First flight mid 1974.
Production delivery from 1979.
EJ200 timescales were quite a bit longer and had a great deal of technology and experience already in place.
So while I am not at all surprised that it is simply outstanding, it is still good to hear that confirmed.