Maintenance simplicity of the EJ200

Citation

(2000), "Maintenance simplicity of the EJ200", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 72 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2000.12772aaf.010

Maintenance simplicity of the EJ200

Keywords EUROJET, Maintenance, Aero engines

Everyone involved was a winner when EUROJET staged a maintenance "competition" to test the maintainability of its EJ200 engine, powerplant of the Eurofighter combat aircraft.

Support technicians taking part in the demonstrations were representing the Royal Air Force, German Air Force and, from industry, FiatAvio of Italy, Spain's Industria de Turbopropulsores (ITP), MTU Munchen of Germany and the UK's Rolls-Royce - the four companies in the four-nation engine consortium.

They gained valuable early experience in how to maintain the engine, and EUROJET was able to demonstrate clearly to a varied audience the ease with which the engine can be maintained on the front-line.

Italian engineers began the sessions, which took place during last year's Paris Air Show and were designed to demonstrate directly to service and industry personnel how quickly and simply externally-mounted components can be changed and maintained by squadron and second-line service engineers.

Rolls-Royce and the RAF were next, followed by MTU and German Air Force and then ITP engineers. The exercise proved a great attraction and EUROJET recorded a large number of visitors viewing the demonstrations.

Tasks handled ranged from the replacement of small parts such as the exhaust nozzle petals, filters and ignitors, to a change out of larger, key components such as the digital engine control unit and afterburner control unit.

Each team did well, recording faster times than the preset maintenance targets, and the RAF team even managed the tasks within the time while wearing NBC (nuclear, biological and chemical) resistant suits.

Details available from: EUROJET, Munich, Germany. Tel: +49 89 66692 165; Fax: +49 89 66692 139.