WEST CHESTER, Ohio — CFM International's CFM56 fleet has become the first high bypass turbofan engine family in history to achieve more than 800 million engine flight hours in service.
The first CFM56 engines entered service in1982 and provided a quantum leap to this industry segment in terms of fuel efficiency, noise and emissions levels. Since then, CFM has delivered nearly 30,000 engines to 550-plus operators around the globe.
The CFM56 fleet is logging one million flight hours every eight days and, at any given moment, there are more than 2,400 CFM56-powered aircraft in the air. At this rate, the CFM56 family will achieve one billion flight hours by the year 2020.
The distinguishing feature of the CFM56 product line is its unrivaled reliability, which has served as the industry benchmark for more than 25 years. The average time on wing for current production CFM56 engines before a first shop visit is approximately 30,000 hours, with the current fleet record at 50,000 hours. That equates to driving a car the distance to the moon and back 30 times without ever putting it in the garage for service. Or driving the same car for 1,000 years--the time it would take to log 15 million miles and circle the earth 600 times--with nothing more than oil changes and new spark plugs.
"We are obviously very proud of reaching this incredible milestone, but we know we could never have done it without the continued confidence of our customers around the world," said Jean-Paul Ebanga, president and CEO of CFM International. "From the beginning, the CFM model has been simple: meet all of our commitments; continually invest in the product line; and provide world-class customer and product support. This philosophy has enabled the CFM56 product line to become the industry benchmark for reliability and low cost of ownership.”
About CFM International
CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines, is the world’s leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines.