Aviation International News senior correspondent Ian Goold has been involved in aerospace since 1964 and in aviation media for more than 40 years. He enjoyed a 20-year career at Flight International magazine, where he was latterly air-transport editor before turning freelance in 1993. A winner of the European Regions Airline Association Hank McGonagle award for excellence in aerospace journalism and a Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace Journalist of the Year global&nbsp;award, he has edited or contributed to aerospace and aviation magazines, special publications, and websites in Africa, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North and South America. Ian entered aerospace as an apprentice at the British Aircraft Corporation at Brooklands (Weybridge), where he worked on production and final assembly lines of the Vickers Super VC10, and BAC One-Eleven , and manufacture of Concorde major sub-assemblies. He subsequently graduated from the BAC Design Training School to work in the airframe structures drawing office (including design of international future projects, such as the Panavia Tornado multi-role combat aircraft) before joining Flight International in 1973. Apart from years of reading aircraft magazines and books, his first direct contact with aviation media had come during the early 1970s when he was involved at Brooklands with the Weybridge Man-powered Aircraft Group, which designed and built the tenth aircraft to fly under purely human power. As an aviation journalist, he has worked at more than&nbsp; 50 of the major biennial&nbsp;global and regional international aerospace industry shows at Le Bourget, Farnborough, Singapore, and Dubai (having missed attending only one "Farnborough" since 1960), plus innumerable NBAA, HAI, (U.S.) AOPA, and EBACE Conventions and ERA Assemblies. His favourite aircraft is the Hawker Hunter, of which – as a schoolboy – he heard hundreds make their first flights from Dunsfold, where also on September 24, 2013, he saw the penultimate landing of the VC10 (happily involving an example of which he had witnessed the maiden takeoff in 1970) a day before the last example made the design's final flight (unless, of course....).

Senior correspondent

Ian Goold

Snecma appears to be giving itself more time before beginning flight-testing of its first business jet engine: the Silvercrest. But the apparent delay in what had been projected at last year’s EBACE show as a first flight in the first half of 2013 will likely have little bearing on the certification path for the new turbofan’s first applications.


The 9,500- to 12,000-pound engine has already been selected to power Cessna’s new Citation Longitude, due to enter service in 2017. French airframer Dassault is set launch its new SMS aircraft this fall at the NBAA show in the U.S. and there appears little to contradict informed conjecture that the Silvercrest will be its chosen powerplant, too. If Snecma stays on track with its goal of certifying the Silvercrest in 2015 (first by EASA, followed soon after by the FAA), this should be consistent with Dassault’s plans for the SMS to enter service in 2016.


Ahead of this week’s EBACE show, Snecma did not directly respond to the question as to when the first flights on a Gulfstream II testbed will be achieved. The French company said simply that, “Ground tests will be pursued while the flight test bed modifications are still going on, till the end of this year.”


After initial appearances at last year's NBAA convention in Orlando and last November’s Middle East Business Aviation exhibition in Dubai, a Silvercrest engine mockup is expected to make its European debut here at EBACE.


Snecma has reports that Silvercrest ground trials continue to fulfill design specifications for the new engine. “From the first tests run in October 2012, the tests demonstrated positive results meeting our expectations,” commented the company. “Specific attention has been related to engine mechanical behavior and performance evaluations, which are right on our target. Structural trials and low-pressure spool characteristics are as projected.”


Flight trials are set to take place with a Silvercrest attached to the right-hand pylon of the GII testbed, in place of the usual Rolls-Royce Spey powerplant after completion of the pylon modifications and the addition of telemetry equipment. This process was expected to take about 18 months and could be a reason for the apparent further delay.


Snecma is aiming to produce an engine that will decrease fuel consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 15 percent and reduce nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions by 50 percent, compared with current CAEP/6 standards, while reducing noise by 20 dB versus Stage 4 requirements. The manufacturer believes Silvercrest will have half of the noise footprint of slightly smaller engines, such as the 9,200-pound-thrust General Electric CF34-3 and 9,440-pound-thrust Rolls-Royce AE3007C2. It claims that a family of such engines “is perfectly suited to mid- and high-end business-jets in the super-midsize, large and long-range classes.”


Apart from the powerplant destined for airborne flight trials, Snecma is building eight development engines for testing andcertification. It says the Silvercrest is a “true on-condition engine” that will have no fixed inspection interval for maintenance, and will use in-flight engine-performance monitoring.


Safran Family Affair


The <a href="http://ainonline.com/aviation-news/nbaa-convention-news/2012-10-30/snecma-puts-silvercrest-engine-test">Silvercrest program</a> provides a good illustration of how different Safran companies and joint venture members can contribute to the group’s output. Safran Electronics will provide full-authority digital engine controls. The low-pressure (LP) compressor, forward sump and lubrication unit come from Belgium’s Techspace Aero (the former FN Moteurs), which is a 55.8-percent-owned Safran subsidiary producing components, modules, subassemblies and test stands for aircraft and rocket engines. It also is part of a technological development program with GE Aviation for new-generation engines, including the TechX business jet powerplant.


The Techspace Aero LP compressor draws on work done in the European Vital low-noise/-emission research project, for which it provided an LP compressor with improved aerodynamics. By the end of last year, Techspace Aero had delivered five complete LP module assemblies. Furthermore, the centrifugal stage of the Silvercrest engine’s core demonstrator tested more than five years ago was designed by Turbomeca.


According to Loic Nicolas, Snecma’s business aviation general manager, <a href="http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/meba-convention-news/2012-12-01/snecma-outlines-silvercrest-support">service for the Silvercrest engine</a> will be provided by new service centers in the U.S., Asia and France (covering Europe and the Middle East). Snecma is using sophisticated performance monitoring systems on the new engine that allow data to be downlinked to ground centers for computer analysis.

News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

Snecma Close To Second Application For Silvercrest

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Matt Thurber

News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

Proprietary formula took more than 15 years to develop

GE Explores Dust Effects on Turbine Engine Operations

Kerry Lynch

Sesame engine covers can be installed while standing on ground

Sesame Provides Innovative Cover for Bizjet Engines

Amy Wilder

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

Trevor Milton, Gregg Williams ink deal at NBAA-BACE 2025

SyberJet Selects Williams FJ44-4A for SJ36 Light Jet

Curt Epstein

The turboprop engines are being assembled in the Czech Republic

GE Aerospace Preps First Catalyst for Denali Delivery

The OEM has switched its production from Global 7500 engines to those for the Model 8000

GE Aerospace Prepares Passports for Global 8000 Liftoff

Charles Alcock

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

News about environmental issues relating to aircraft operations, including noise issues, emissisions, and regulations. See Fuel for biofuel.

UK start-up will supply eight electric propulsion systems for each aircraft

Electra Selects Evolito to Power EL9 Hybrid-Electric Aircraft

Charlotte Bailey

News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA re-authorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.

Integrated system assembly of hydrogen fuel cell powertrain expected by year-end

Project Newborn Team Targets Hydrogen Flights in 2028 

News and developments about aviation fuel, including jet fuel, aviation gasoline, and biofuel.

More In Engines