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McDonnell Douglas Corp. has entered a second phase of testing a new airliner engine called a propfan. The new form of propulsion might change the sights and sounds of commercial aviation or it might remain just an idea slightly ahead of its time.
Propfan engines have shown in tests that they save fuel in comparison to conventional jets. Demonstrator engines have achieved fuel savings of 25 percent; much larger savings are predicted as engines are refined. Whether the propfans gain wide use will depend on how attractive they are to airlines - or how important it is to save fuel. If the price of fuel goes up, the propfan plane becomes more attractive. At this time, fuel prices are relatively low, so there is no great pressure to take the step to propfan propulsion.
McDonnell Douglas begins flight tests this month on a new propfan engine mounted on an MD-80 transport plane. The engine system was made by the Pratt & Whitney division of United Technologies Corp. and the Allison Gas Turbine Divisi on of General Motors Corp. It is the second propfan engine to be tested on the MD-80 test plane. In September, McDonnell Douglas completed several months of test flights with an unducted fan engine made by General Electric Co. The flights included a trip to England and back.
General Electric has estimated that the cost of developing the new engine will be about $1 billion. That's a fairly accurate rule-of-thumb cost for developing a new jet engine, a spokesman said. McDonnell Douglas expects to spend about $500 million in developing a propfan-powered airliner. The plane, called the MD-90 series, would be a derivative of the MD-80. The development cost would be about one-sixth as much as developing a new plane from scratch, said Kim Still, vice president and general manager of the MD-90 program.
"Interest in the propfan-powered airliner has developed more slowly than might have been expected," Still said. "Nonetheless, we are going ahead. We are empowered to make firm offers to airlines and we are pressing forward."
He said McDonnell Douglas would require sizable orders from...