Lufthansa and CFM International are celebrating the achievement of 100,000 flight hours by one of the airline’s CFM56-5C engines more than 20 years after Lufthansa took delivery of its first Airbus A340-300. The airline was the launch customer for the CFM56-5C-powered A340 and put the first aircraft into revenue service in February 1993. Lufthansa currently operates 18 CFM-powered A340 aircraft.
The engine (ESN 740146) entered commercial service with Lufthansa on November 16, 1993 on one of the first Airbus A340 aircraft delivered. Over the course of its service life, the engine has been fully overhauled four times at Lufthansa Technik. Lufthansa reports: “The engine with the serial number ESN 740146 began its career on November 16, 1993 on one of the first aircraft of the then newly developed long-haul type, the Airbus A340. The engine was first used in position 3 (inside right) on the Lufthansa A340-200 D-AIBF (“Bravo Foxtrott”, MSN 006), an aircraft that was later sold in 2004. Today the engine flies in position 1 (outer left) on the A340-300 D-AIGS (“Golf Sierra”) and is thus used right around the globe.”
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100,000 engine hours is an impressive achievement ! Congratulations to CFMI ! This sheds a particular light onto the discussion about the relative merits of quads vs twins for long haul service from the overall economic viewpoint : the comparison isn’t at all preconcluded specially when looking at the full life of the aircraft, given the excellent engine lifetime in-service achievements hereinabove if the contending quad is fitted with eg 4 x CFM56 !
This would be comparable to putting 4 to 5 million miles on a car engine while driving it 12 hours a day, every single day for over 2 decades. 4 overhauls sounds really good for that kind of life span
Unfortunately Air France who did buy comparable twin/quads in the B777-200 and the A340 series reduced its A340 fleet and increased its 777 fleet.
they now run 11 A340s and 70 777’s.
maybe the particular CFM model just wasnt as well suited or cost effective as it could have been.- it was a considerable redesign of a short haul engine for long haul while GE hit the sweet spot with its 777 engines. Could be the engine pricing was deliberately designed to put the A340 out of business??