GE Aviation’s Advanced Turboprop engine (www.geaviation.com), the first ‘clean sheet’ turboprop engine to hit the Business and General Aviation (BGA) market in more than 30 years, successfully completed its first engine test run at GE Aviation’s facility in Prague, Czech Republic, last month.

Brad Mottier, vice-president and general manager of GE Aviation’s BGA and Integrated Systems organisation, said: “Running the Advanced Turboprop engine this year was our biggest and most important goal; it comes as a result of two years of tremendous effort by a world-wide team.

“The integration of proven technologies has expedited the design, development and certification cycle of the engine.”

The Advanced Turboprop engine, which will begin certification testing in 2018, will power Textron Aviation’s new Cessna Denali, which is expected to fly in late 2018.

By the time the Denali enters into service, the engine will have completed more than 2,000hr of testing.

Moreover, with the engine run and most of the individual component testing completed, early indications are that GE Aviation will meet or exceed all the performance numbers it has quoted for the engine.”

Rated at 1,240 shaft horse-power, the Advanced Turboprop engine features an industry-best 16:1 overall pressure ratio, enabling the engine to achieve as much as 20% lower fuel burn and 10% higher cruise power than competitors’ engines in the same size class; and at 4,000hr, it offers 33% more time between overhaul than its leading competitor.

It is also the first turboprop engine in its class to introduce two stages of variable stator vanes and cooled high-pressure turbine blades.

Furthermore, the Advanced Turboprop engine includes more ‘printed’ components than any production engine in aviation history, with 35% of its parts built via additive manufacturing.

A total of 855 conventionally manufactured parts has been reduced to 12 additive parts; these include sumps, bearing housings, frames, exhaust case, combustor liner, heat exchangers and stationary flow-path components.

Additive components reduce the engine’s weight by 5% while contributing a 1% improvement in specific fuel consumption).

Mr Mottier said that GE Aviation, which spent more than $400 million developing the new engine, will build its new turboprop development, test and production facility in the Czech Republic.