GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – May 20, 2013 – GE Aviation is celebrating the 30th anniversary of its CF34 engine powering business jets.
The CF34-1A engine entered service on a Bombardier Challenger 601 Corporate Jet in 1983. More than 1,800 engines are in service today on Challenger 601, 604 and 605 and CRJ100/200 business jets. The engines accumulated more than 8 million flight hours over the last three decades and boast an outstanding 99.99% dispatch reliability rate.
"The CF34 engine began as a business aviation engine before it took flight as the powerplant for regional jet aviation," said Allen Paxson, general manager of the CF34 program at GE Aviation. "As we increased our understanding of the CF34 engines through next-generation development programs, we transferred this knowledge to the CF34-3 program to expand its flight envelope and improve its time on wing and reliability."
CF34 engine production continues well into the future. In 2013, GE Aviation will produce 80 CF34-3 engines for Challenger customers, and this rate is anticipated to hold steady for the next several years. Last year, the CF34-3 engine received its largest single business jet order from NetJets for 25 firm Challenger 605s with options for an additional 50 aircraft.
GE launched a fleet modernization program in 2006 to enable the Challenger 601 engine to be maintained like the CF34-3 engines on the Challenger 604/605 aircraft. By retrofitting the hot section of the CF34-1A/3A/3A2 engines to the hot section of the airline-proven CF34-3A1 engines, the engines are upgraded from a "hard-time" maintenance schedule to "on-condition"—freeing these engines from scheduled hot section inspections and overhauls. The upgrade allows operators to improve extended time-on-wing, increased aircraft resale value and lower overall cost of operation.
With more than 600 Bombardier Challenger* and CRJ 100/200 business jets in operational service since 1983, the CF34 engine has set new standards for reliability. The average first unscheduled shop visit occurs at about 9,000 cycles, which is equivalent to 20 years of typical biz jet operation.
GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet, turboprop and turboshaft engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings.
