Rolls-Royce Deutschland has successfully completed the first test flight of its new Pearl 10X engine, which has been selected by the French aircraft manufacturer Dassault to power its new, flagship Falcon 10X business aircraft. The plane will deliver some of the cleanest international air travel in existence and will also provide passengers with a new level of flight safety, thanks to an advanced engine mount beam and pylon thermal blanket assembly designed and manufactured by Freudenberg Sealing Technologies (FST).
The company’s Tillsonburg facility in Ontario, Canada, has worked with Rolls-Royce on development of the thermal blanket, outer trunnion seal and access plugs for the past two years. The blanket is a new industry design that is more robust than existing blankets. It also provides extended service life and excellent thermal protection of the engine mount beam, trunnion, and pylon in the event of a thermal event such as a burst duct or engine fire. Manufactured from silicone and fireproof fabric – two materials that Tillsonburg is highly skilled in handling – the blanket assembly including blanket, trunnion seal, plugs and metallic doublers weighs a mere 11.2 pounds and measures 4.7 feet long and 0.5 feet wide. The Freudenberg design helps lower the aircraft’s total weight, saves fuel, and will last the aircraft’s entire life.
“This aircraft promises to be the cleanest, most sustainable jet in the skies,” said David Wilker, Head of Program and Design in Tillsonburg. The Falcon 10X uses titanium for the engine mount beam and trunnion, and aluminum for the pylons. “We needed to protect the titanium engine mount beam, trunnion, and the pylon from reaching temperatures which could lead to significant degradation of the materials during a thermal event, while providing excellent environmental protection when exposed to the elements in flight. Through long hours of research and testing, we have achieved our goal.”
Tillsonburg Senior Designer Phil Vaughan, along with Rolls-Royce engineers, relied on CAD data and physical testing to determine geometry and the number of layers of silicone and fireproof fabric required to protect the engine mount beam, trunnion and pylon from the blistering heat produced when the aircraft is exposed to a thermal event during flight. The team used a test rig built to simulate the Rolls-Royce engine mount design. Thermocouples recorded the rig’s temperatures when protected by the thermal blanket assembly and exposed to a large jet burner flame that reached 2000 °F and 4500 BTU/hr. for 15 minutes.
Product safety while at optimum weight, and an increase in service life, are primary concerns in the aerospace industry.
“In the case of the Pearl 10X, we were able to meet product safety requirements, weight, and produce a more durable seal than what is currently available in the industry,” Wilker said. “This is a novel design, the first of its kind.”
Freudenberg Sealing Technology’s Tillsonburg plant will produce 50 thermal blankets annually for the Pearl 10X engine program. The company anticipates that this will increase as other customers using similar beam and trunnion designs inquire about Freudenberg’s unique solution.
During the next year, the Falcon 10X will undergo numerous test flights before officially taking its first commercial flight. Freudenberg Sealing Technologies will be there, too, keeping things cleaner and cooler.
