CFM56 on-wing record

[barit1]

(Aero News Network)

First Engine To Achieve 50,000 Flight Hours Without A Shop Visit

German airline TUIfly and CFM International marked a new first-run time-on-wing world record set by a CFM56-7B engine powering one of the airlines Boeing Next-Generation 737-800 aircraft. The engine logged more than 50,000 hours without a shop visit. "This record is a remarkable achievement and we are delighted that the technical and flight operational assistance from TUIfly have made such a record possible.Here you can see what a first class engine, in conjunction with professional flight and maintenance operation, can achieve," said Friedrich Keppler, Managing Director TUIfly in a news release Wednesday.

The CFM56-7B engine was recently removed for LLP (life-limited part) replacement. Up until its removal, the engine was performing flawlessly and show very good EGT (exhaust gas temperature) margin. EGT margin is the primary indictor of an engine’s fuel efficiency. The airline has operated a CFM56-powered Boeing fleet exclusively for more than 24 years and currently operates a fleet of 40 CFM56-7B-powered aircraft.

"On behalf of the entire CFM Team, I extend my warmest congratulations to everyone at TUIfly for this remarkable achievement," said Jean-Paul Ebanga, president and CEO of CFM. "We believe we build the most reliable engines in the air, but we know thatit is our customers that keep them flying. What the TUIfly operations and maintenance teams have achieved with this engine is truly impressive."

TUIfly was able to keep the engine on wing through continuous diagnostics, which enabled the maintenance team to optimize the maintenance intervals for the engine. In addition, the airline implemented fuel-efficient, noise-optimized cockpit procedures, along with periodic engine washes, which extended the life of the engines and helped to reduce fuel consumption.

[captplaystation]

This is even more impressive as TUI are assumedly using more thrust than say Ryanair/Norwegian due to hot OAT/short-fields they encounter in the charter field.
We seem to spend most of our time taking off with thrust set at what feels like high-idle, seems it pays off.

[deSitter]

That's 20 hours a day for something like 7 years - really?

[atakacs]

That's 20 hours a day for something like 7 years - really?

Seems indeed very unlikely

[bvcu]

be interesting to know the facts , is it 'on wing ' , which would be very impressive . Or without a shop visit , i.e overhaul , so being a modular engine with the hot section replaced in house ?

[STBYRUD]

Hmm, seems possible - their oldest bird will turn 15 very soon (Hapag Lloyd was the launch customer of the -800 after all) - D-AHFA was delivered still in '98...

[proxus]

Icelandair had the record for the RB211. That was over 40.000 hrs (c.a. 43.000) on wing. So for me, 50.000 hrs is not totally out of reach.
Proxus

[Chillimausl]

CFMI release states the engine was delivered in 1999, so that makes the arithmetic less onerous.

I imagine that TUIfly has above average stage lengths - relative to a loco, that is.

After how many cycles does one reach the first LLPs on the -7? (have that for the -3, but things do change)

Some machine though. In about 15 years from now we'll know if GTF can get close.

[lederhosen]

It is indeed around 10.5 hours utilisation a day, day in day out, which is in itself pretty impressive for a 737. There are a fair few rotations to the canaries in there. German airlines were early and enthusiastic implementers of assumed temperature take offs and given the length of a lot of the runways used (FRA/MUC/CGN etc.) the benefits are obvious. I have on occasion been asked by the tower if we had had an engine failure when using derate 2 and max assumed!

[captplaystation]

Derate 2 + Max Assumed . . . . AND Improved climb, feel I should be going transatlantic with the take-off roll sometimes.

[STBYRUD]

Yeah, quite embarassing how you can reduce a dry 4000m runway to 250m stop margin with a double derate and improved climb :}