In 1988, Allison Engine Company (then owned by General Motors) and Rolls-Royce plc began joint studies of a 33 kN (7,400 lbf) RB580 to power the proposed Short Brothers FJX regional jet, combining the T406 core with a Rolls-Royce low-pressure spool.
By late 1989, amid growing importance of the Rolls-Royce Trent engine and uncertainty over the Short Brothers project, Rolls-Royce quit. Allison Engine Company pursued the engine alone, revising the design as a new wide-chord snubberless (or clapperless) titanium fan and low-pressure turbine.[1]
On March 23, 1990, Allison's GMA 3007 was selected to power the Embraer EMB-145 regional jet.[2] In September 1990, it was selected for the Cessna Citation X.[1]
The engine was first ground tested in mid-1991.[3] On August 21, 1992, the engine had its first test flight on a Cessna Citation VIItestbed aircraft.[4]
In 1995, Rolls-Royce bought Allison Engine Company and the engine had its first flight on the EMB-145.
The Citation X AE3007C, producing 28.655 kN (6,442 lbf), was certificated by the FAA in February 1995; while the
EMB-145 AE3007A, producing 39 kN (8,800 lbf), was certificated in mid-1996.[1]
More than 3,400 engines have been delivered.[5]
In 2014, 2,976 civil engines were installed.[6]
In 2017, the AE 3007 in the ERJ family had flown over 53 million hours and over 44 million cycles.[7]
It was flown for more than 60 million hours.[8]
The engine is manufactured at the Rolls-Royce North America engine plant in Indianapolis, Indiana.[9]
Design
The AE 3007 is a direct drive turbofan engine with a single stage fan, a 14-stage axial compressor with 6 stages of variable vanes including inlet guide vanes, an annular combustor, a two-stage high pressure turbine and a 3-stage low pressure turbine.
The accessory gearbox is mounted at its bottom and two single channel FADEC units are mounted in the aircraft.
It has fore and aft mounting provisions for underwing pylon or aft fuselage installation.[10] The AE 3007 has a thrust-specific fuel consumption (TSFC) of 0.36 lb/(lbf⋅h) (10 g/(kN⋅s)) at static sea level takeoff and 0.65 lb/(lbf⋅h) (18 g/(kN⋅s)) at a cruise speed of Mach 0.8 and altitude of 35,010 ft (10,670 m).[11] The engine's A variant was designed to produce a cruise thrust of 6.3 kN (640 kgf; 1,420 lbf) at Mach 0.8 and 41,000 ft (12,000 m) altitude.[12]
A proposed 8,000 lbf (36 kN; 3,600 kgf) thrust variant with a 38.5 in (98 cm) diameter fan[14]
AE3009
A proposed 9,000 lbf (40 kN; 4,100 kgf) thrust version with a new high-pressure turbine ceramic-matrix composite tailcone[15]
GMA 3010 / AE 3010
A 10,000 lbf (44.5 kN; 4,540 kgf) thrust variant, which was to power the Yakovlev Yak-77 twin-engine business jet[16] as a derated variant of the GMA 3012 with a 44 in diameter (112 cm) fan[17]
GMA 3012 / AE 3012
A proposed 12,000 lbf (53 kN; 5,400 kgf) thrust variant with a 44 in diameter (112 cm) fan, two-stage intermediate compressor, an extra stage in the low pressure turbine, and an advanced high pressure turbine[14]
GMA 3014 / GMA 3014 ADV
A proposed variant targeted toward the Regioplane consortium's 80-130-seat Regioliner RL 92/RL 122 (the successor to the MPC 75),[18] with a 55 in diameter (140 cm) fan,[17] 14,000–20,000 lbf (62–89 kN; 6,400–9,100 kgf) of thrust, a new eight-stage compressor, dual-bank combustor, and a four-stage low pressure turbine[19]
^Sweetman, Bill (October 1994). "New power for regionals". Finance, markets & industry. Interavia. Vol. 49, no. 583. Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. pp. 16–18. ISSN1423-3215. OCLC199793280.
^ ab"Allison stakes much of civil and commercial future on T406: Core will carry division from 6,000 lbst. to 12,000 lbst". Aerospace Propulsion. Vol. 3, no. 10. 14 May 1992. pp. 1+. ISSN1050-5245 – via Factiva.
