The General Electric GE38 is a

gas turbine A gas turbine or gas turbine engine is a type of Internal combustion engine#Continuous combustion, continuous flow internal combustion engine. The main parts common to all gas turbine engines form the power-producing part (known as the gas gene ...

developed by

GE Aviation General Electric Company, doing business as GE Aerospace, is an American aircraft engine supplier that is headquartered in Evendale, Ohio, outside Cincinnati. It is the legal successor to the original General Electric Company founded in 1892, wh ...

for

turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...

and

turboshaft A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaft horsepower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the ex ...

applications. It powers the

Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion (Sikorsky S-95) is a heavy transport helicopter designed and produced by Sikorsky Aircraft. The King Stallion is an evolution of the long running CH-53 series of helicopters which has been in continuous servi ...

as the T408.

Design and development

The GE27 was developed in the early 1980s under the "Modern Technology Demonstrator Engines" (MTDE) program sponsored by the

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the primary Land warfare, land service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is designated as the Army of the United States in the United States Constitution.Article II, section 2, clause 1 of th ...

Aviation Applied Technology Directorate The United States Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD) is a tenant activity located at Fort Eustis, Virginia. It is a directorate of the Aviation Development Directorate under the United States Army Aviation and Missile Research, D ...

. Sporting a 22:1 pressure ratio, which was a record for single-spool

compressor A compressor is a mechanical device that increases the pressure of a gas by reducing its volume. An air compressor is a specific type of gas compressor. Many compressors can be staged, that is, the gas is compressed several times in steps o ...

s at the time, the GE27 was GE's unsuccessful submission to power the

Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-use, tiltrotor military transport and cargo aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionalit ...

tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft that generates lift (force), lift and thrust, propulsion by way of one or more powered Helicopter rotor, rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shaft (mechanical engineering), shafts or nacelles ...

aircraft. The GE27 also had a compressor air flow of and a turbine temperature of . The GE27 first ran in late 1984, but it unexpectedly lost the V-22 engine competition to the Allison 501-M80C, which was not a participant in the MTDE program. In the late 1980s, GE used the GE27 as the basis for the commercial development of

turboshafts A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaft horsepower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the ex ...

turboprops A turboprop is a gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction gearbox, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propelling nozzle. Air enters the intake and is compressed by the compressor. F ...

, turbofans, and

propfan A propfan, also called an open rotor engine, open fan engine is an aircraft engine combining features of turbofans and turboprops. It uses advanced, curved propeller blades without a ducted fan, duct. Propfans aim to combine the speed capabili ...

s under the GE38 name. GE formed a 50/50 venture with

Garrett Garrett may refer to: Places in the United States * Garrett, Illinois, a village * Garrett, Indiana, a city * Garrett, Floyd County, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Garrett, Meade County, Kentucky, an unincorporated community * Garrett, ...

(then a division of

AlliedSignal AlliedSignal, Inc. was an American aerospace, automotive and engineering company, created through the 1985 merger of Allied Corp. and The Signal Companies. It purchased Honeywell for $14.8 billion in 1999, and adopted the Honeywell name and iden ...

) to develop the turbofan variant called the CFE (Commercial Fan Engines)

CFE738 The CFE CFE738 is a small turbofan engine aimed at the business/commuter jet market manufactured by the CFE Company, and is used on the Dassault Falcon 2000. Design and development The success of the GE27/GLC38 gas generator development of t ...

, which used the GE27's gas generator core. One of a range of advertised GE38

unducted fan A propfan, also called an open rotor engine, open fan engine is an aircraft engine combining features of turbofans and turboprops. It uses advanced, curved propeller blades without a duct. Propfans aim to combine the speed capability of turbof ...

(UDF) sizes, the takeoff thrust GE38-B5 was for a time the baseline engine for the West German-Chinese

MPC 75 The MPC 75 was a proposed type of aeroplane. Work on the project was done mainly between 1988 and 1992 in Hamburg, Germany. Predevelopment work was finished, however the project never made it into full development. Development On 3 October 1985, ...

regional airliner. The GE38 became the ''T407'' military turboprop in partnership with

Lycoming Engines Lycoming Engines is a major American manufacturer of aircraft engines. With a factory in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, Lycoming produces a line of horizontally opposed, air-cooled, four, six and eight-cylinder engines. The company has built more ...

for the

Lockheed P-7 The Lockheed P-7 was a four turboprop-engined patrol aircraft ordered by the U.S. Navy as a replacement for the P-3 Orion. The external configuration of the aircraft was to be very similar to that of the P-3. Development had not progressed very ...

A, with a maximum takeoff power of 6,000 shp (4,475 kW). First run on December 26, 1989, the T407 engine was scheduled to undergo flight testing on a

Lockheed P-3 Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop Anti-submarine warfare, anti-submarine and maritime patrol aircraft, maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. It is based on the Lockheed ...

testbed aircraft A testbed aircraft is an aeroplane, helicopter or other kind of aircraft intended for flight research or testing the aircraft concepts or on-board equipment. These could be specially designed or modified from serial production aircraft. Use of ...

in the summer of 1990, but the US Navy canceled Lockheed's P-7 contract on July 20, 1990. The commercial version of the T407 was the ''GLC38'' (General Electric/Lycoming Commercial 38), which was unsuccessfully offered for several turboprop airliners in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The new ''T408'' (''GE38-1B'') is slated to power the new

three-engined helicopter for the US Marine Corps. It has a power rating of 7,500 shp. The GE38 completed its first round of ground testing in May 2010. Two test engines have completed over 1,000 hours of ground testing by November 2011. Five test engines will be used in the 5,000-hour test program."GE38 Looking to Take to the Sea"
GE Aviation, January 18, 2011. In September 2019, GE delivered the first production T408 engine to the U.S.

Naval Air Systems Command The Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) provides materiel support for aeronaval aircraft and airborne weapon systems for the United States Navy. It is one of the Echelon II Navy systems commands (SYSCOM), and was established in 1966 as the succe ...

(NAVAIR) for the CH-53K. GE also offered the engine to power the U.S. Navy's

Ship-to-Shore Connector The Ship-to-Shore Connector (SSC), also known as the LCAC 100 class, is a system proposed by the United States Navy as a replacement for the Landing Craft Air Cushion (LCAC). It will offer an increased capacity to cope with the growing weight of ...

air-cushioned landing craft An air-cushioned landing craft, also called an LCAC ( landing craft, air cushioned), is a modern variation on the amphibious landing boat. The majority of these craft are small- to mid-sized multi-purpose hovercraft, also known as "over the be ...

. The T408 was also tested by the U.S. Army and

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

as an alternative powerplant on an NCH-47D Chinook testbed helicopter. The helicopter configuration was ground tested beginning in late 2019, followed by an initial flight on September 22, 2020. Conclusion of the test trials was announced on May 12, 2021.

Variants

;T407-GE-400 *

;T408-GE-400 (GE38-1B) * Boeing NCH-47D Chinook (flying testbed) *

;

CFE CFE738 The CFE CFE738 is a small turbofan engine aimed at the business/commuter jet market manufactured by the CFE Company, and is used on the Dassault Falcon 2000. Design and development The success of the GE27/GLC38 gas generator development of t ...

: Turbofan variant of the T407-GE-400, used on the

Dassault Falcon The Dassault Falcon is a family of business jets, manufactured by Dassault Aviation. Dassault produce the midsize Falcon 2000S/LXS twinjet, the long-range Falcon 6X twinjet and Falcon 900LX trijet, and ultra-long range Dassault Falcon 7X/8X trij ...

;CPX38: Proposed turboprop engine variant of the GE38-1B ;GE38-3: An class derivative engine under consideration by the U.S. military in 2006 ;GE38-B5: A

contra-rotating Contra-rotating, also referred to as coaxial contra-rotating, is a technique whereby parts of a mechanism rotate in opposite directions about a common axis, usually to minimise the effect of torque. Examples include some aircraft propellers, r ...

, ungeared,

(UDF) derivative with a bare engine weight (including the UDF) of , a UDF diameter of , and a blade count of 11 on one propeller and 9 on the other; provides a

takeoff Takeoff is the phase of flight in which an aerospace vehicle leaves the ground and becomes airborne. For aircraft traveling vertically, this is known as liftoff. For aircraft that take off horizontally, this usually involves starting with a tr ...

thrust of with a

thrust-specific fuel consumption Thrust-specific fuel consumption (TSFC) is the fuel efficiency of an engine design with respect to thrust output. TSFC may also be thought of as fuel consumption (grams/second) per unit of thrust (newtons, or N), hence ''thrust-specific''. This fig ...

(TSFC) of , and a cruise thrust of with a TSFC of ; proposed for the

German-Chinese regional airliner in the late 1980s ;GLC38: Proposed turboprop variant of the T407-GE-400

Applications

* Boeing NCH-47D Chinook (flying testbed) *

Specifications (T408)

References

Bibliography

* * * * * *

External links

General Electric GE38 page
*
GE38 page on deagel.com
{{USAF gas turbine engines GE38 1980s turboshaft engines