Delta inaugurates the world's largest jet engine test room

The company 's new building, consisting of "engine test cells," installed at Atlanta' s global headquarters, revolves around a huge testing hall allowing technicians to maintain the powerful gears that push airplanes through the air and carry millions of passengers every year.

Such places are essential for jet engines to work perfectly at all times.

Last week, Delta m invited me to visit the new building to see how it is designed to test the engines of today, as well as the ultra-powerful engines of the day. future.

Inside the room, from a height of 48 feet, the technicians let me stand a few tens of meters from a powerful jet engine with Rolls-Royce Trent turbojets. XWB 8 tons.

"Like a hurricane of your worst nightmares"

What power?

Imagine holding a giant scale against the explosion while the engine was off. This imaginary balance would have a weight of 85,000 pounds.

So, while we waited for technicians in a nearby control room to launch this monster, you could say that there was a bit of nervous excitement.

The engine purred … then he let out a small puff of jet fuel.

Then, I felt a vibration move in the room, making the hair stand on the back of the neck.

Then a whistling wall turned into an overwhelming mechanical roar. To speak was useless.

Still, the engine was idling, generating only about 3,000 pounds of thrust, far from maximum power. Safety is always a priority here, and no one is ever allowed into the room in dangerous conditions, especially when an engine explodes at full speed. It would be "probably like a hurricane of your worst nightmares," said Mike Moore, Delta's senior vice president of operations, inventory and logistics.

48-foot doors and an anti-blast basket

And do not forget the doors. Make no mistake, we are talking about massive doors here.

The technicians drive the engines in the test cell through a set of solid concrete double doors 26 feet wide and 48 feet above us. Each door weighs over 300,000 pounds.

These doors are so gigantic that they are controlled from a special box that pushes them and closes them with a few buttons. Why so big? Doors must be able to withstand the extreme levels of atmospheric pressure that may occur during testing.

Delta had to "build a facility robust enough to withstand the negative pressures that the engine built in the front – and to be able to withstand the pressure – thrust – at the rear of the engine," said Don Mitacek, vice -President Director of Technical Operations at Delta.

There are other amazing design features inside this building – like the "Exhaust Stack".

Basically, it's a piece that gets rid of the engine exhaust. When you use huge reactors all day, you have to send all the exhaust gas somewhere.

"The exhaust gases reach over 800-900 degrees Celsius inside the engine," said Dustin Thames, Delta's senior engineer for engine testing and performance.

The engine pumps the very hot gases in a huge circular tunnel built into the wall, which leads to a special chamber in which the gases are released in a gigantic cylindrical cooling device called "anti-blast basket".

The design of the room serves to calm "the violence of the air," said Thames.

The vents in the anti-blast basket disperse the engine exhaust gases throughout the room. They end up rising through a network of sound-absorbing "silencers" before leaving the building through an open roof.

Engine coating

Delta and all other airlines are required to maintain the safety of their fleet by performing regular maintenance checks and replacing critical parts at specific intervals. A big part of this process is ensuring that the engines – and their tens of thousands of parts – are ready to fly thousands of kilometers over the mountains and oceans without breaking down.
"A typical engine during the rebuild process is in the workshop between 60 and 90 days," said Moore. "The engine is completely disassembled, all the parts are inspected and everything is reassembled and then it has to be tested in this installation."

Of course, the preventive engine maintenance process can never be perfect. But perfection is the goal. Engines fail on very rare occasions and airline crews are highly trained to deal with these situations.

"The overall safety situation has improved dramatically in the last 10 years, and we are largely driven by the technology used in the equipment, especially the engines," said Mark Millam, vice president of Technical President of Flight. Safety Foundation, an independent global non-profit organization focused on aviation safety.

What happens, for example, when a twin engine jet cancels an attempt to land then loses power in an engine? The other engine must quickly increase its thrust. Technicians have demonstrated it for us inside the control room of the test cell.

We watched them move the Trent XWB to a so-called "instant acceleration", the equivalent of the flooring when you're driving a car.

A brilliant control handle in the control room is pushed to the limit and in just a few seconds the engine reaches a high power – more than 85,000 pounds of thrust.

Technicians monitor oil pressure, temperature, engine rotation speed and other factors, alerting in case anything goes wrong.
"When you use a motor, it feels like an orchestra, everyone has a role to play and everyone has to come in at the right time," said Moore. They ensure that everything "works in harmony to produce a boost in the given parameters that they are supposed to produce".

The test phase after repair or overhaul adds a layer of security. "The mere fact that you have an additional resource for engine maintenance, maintenance and repairs makes it more viable to use this equipment," Millam said. "The more you use these highly reliable devices in operations, the more beneficial it is for everyone's safety."

Future of flight

The new test facility is part of Delta TechOps, Delta's separate maintenance, repair and overhaul division, serving the Delta fleet and other airlines. The division also has maintenance contracts with Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney jet engine manufacturers.

Everything seems to point to a future with more passengers and more powerful engines, Moore said. "When you look at aviation around the world over the next ten or twenty years, it's only about growth, especially around engines."

In fact, the facility is designed to handle engines so powerful that they have not yet been developed – up to 150,000 pounds of thrust.

"We believe that in the near future, engines will require this kind of thrust," said Mitacek, including "supersonic jet engines".

To stay ahead of the pack, Delta said safety was the priority.

"In this installation, [safety is] A single piece of the puzzle linking all the work we do to this final engine, "said Mitacek. And we know when he will leave here, that it will be safe and reliable. "