Story ID: 
Snecma Silvercrest Schedule Slips into 2016
By: Thierry Dubois
Caption: Flight testing taking place in San Antonio, Texas on a Gulfstream flying testbed.
Word Count: 201
The target certification date for the Snecma Silvercrest has slipped from 2015 to the first half of 2016, program general manager Eric Portejoie told AIN. The engines involved in the program have accumulated a combined 170 flight hours and 2,000 test hours on the ground. The tests have validated a number of operability and performance aspects, Portejoie said, including “the use on a new twin-engine aircraft.” The delay is due to how the tests have been sequenced, he said.

Flight testing is taking place in San Antonio, Texas, on a modified Gulfstream II, which flies with one Silvercrest and one of its original Rolls-Royce Speys. Snecma has created a test center, hiring pilots and maintenance technicians and also using its own employees (some expats and some from Safran USA).

“We can fly up to six times a week,” Portejoie said.

The 11,450-pound-thrust Silvercrest turbofan will power the Falcon 5X, which is due to complete certification late in 2016. Snecma emphasized that the change in target certificate date for the Silvercrest will not cause a delay for the new Falcon. Another Silvercrest variant is to be developed for the Citation Longitude, once Cessna settles on a schedule.