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Engine on Navy E-6 sets military aviation record

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  • By Strategic Communications Wing ONE Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., --  Strategic Communications Wing ONE is celebrating a military aviation record after one of its CFM56 engines logged 19,655 hours on an E-6 aircraft before its first removal.

Navy leadership and representatives of CFM International, the engine's manufacturer, marked the milestone recently with a ceremony at Tinker Air Force Base.

"I'm not sure if the original developers of this engine knew the many years of service that their creation would yield," said Rear Admiral Mark Skinner, program executive officer of Tactical Aircraft Programs, "but I do know that this piece of stellar engineering coupled with a solid maintenance program by outstanding maintenance technicians ... has resulted in this engine serving the fleet for the last 20 years."

Previously, the record number of hours flown by an engine before removal stood at 15,000. "This is an incredible accomplishment," said Capt. Dwight Shepherd, commander of Strategic Communications Wing ONE. "This was truly a team effort between the (Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center), the wing and our contractors."

The Berlin Wall was still standing and the first GPS satellites were being launched when the record-breaking engine, a CFM56-2A-2, was produced, said CFM International President Eric Bachelet. Most of the team members who removed the engine were just learning to walk or entering preschool when it was placed on wing.

The engine's 19,655 hours on wing equates to more than six million miles traveled, enough to circumnavigate the earth more than 250 times. The engine was maintained regularly while remaining on the aircraft. The most recent maintenance required the engine to be removed.

"The time on wing and reliability achieved are testaments to the excellent job accomplished by all those men and women of the Navy who deal with the engines, the crews who fly them, the mechanics who maintain them, and the program office in charge of managing all the support," Mr. Bachelet said.

The engine manufacturer, CFM International, is a 50/50 joint company of General Electric and Snecma of France.