The Rolls-Royce AE 3007 (US military: F137) is a turbofan engine produced by Rolls-Royce North America, sharing a common core with the Rolls-Royce T406 (AE 1107) and AE 2100. The engine was originally developed by the Allison Engine Company, hence the "AE" in the model number.
In 1988, Allison Engine Company (then owned by General Motors) and Rolls-Royce plc began joint studies of a RB580 to power the proposed Short Brothers FJX regional jet, combining the T406 core with a Rolls-Royce low-pressure spool.By late 1989, amid growing importance of the Rolls-Royce Trent engine and uncertainty over the Short Brothers project, Rolls-Royce quit. Allison Engine Company pursued the engine alone, revising the design as a new wide-chord snubberless (or clapperless) titanium fan and low-pressure turbine.
On March 23, 1990, Allison's GMA 3007 was selected to power the Embraer EMB-145 regional jet. In September 1990, it was selected for the Cessna Citation X.The engine was first ground tested in mid-1991. On August 21, 1992, the engine had its first test flight on a Cessna Citation VII testbed aircraft.In 1995, Rolls-Royce bought Allison Engine Company and the engine had its first flight on the EMB-145.The Citation X AE3007C, producing, was certificated by the FAA in February 1995; while the EMB-145 AE3007A, producing, was certificated in mid-1996.[1]
In 1995, Teledyne Ryan selected the AE3007H for the Tier II+ unmanned surveillance aircraft (now the Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk), which required long-endurance at up to .It was tested at these altitudes in February 1996 at the Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee and the first was delivered in May 1996.[1]
More than 3,400 engines have been delivered.[2] In 2014, 2,976 civil engines were installed.[3] In 2017, the AE 3007 in the ERJ family had flown over 53 million hours and over 44 million cycles.[4] It was flown for more than 60 million hours.[5] The engine is manufactured at the Rolls-Royce North America engine plant in Indianapolis, Indiana.[6]
The AE 3007 is a direct drive turbofan engine with a single stage fan, a 14-stage axial compressor with 6 stages of variable vanes including inlet guide vanes, an annular combustor, a two-stage high pressure turbine and a 3-stage low pressure turbine.The accessory gearbox is mounted at its bottom and two single channel FADEC units are mounted in the aircraft.It has fore and aft mounting provisions for underwing pylon or aft fuselage installation.[7] The AE 3007 has a thrust-specific fuel consumption (TSFC) of at static sea level takeoff and at a cruise speed of Mach 0.8 and altitude of .[8] The engine's A variant was designed to produce a cruise thrust of at Mach 0.8 and altitude.[9]
| Compressor | Single-stage fan and 14-stage axial HP | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Fan | 24 blades, diameter | ||
| Combustor | Annular | ||
| Turbine | 2-stage HP, 3-stage LP | ||
| Takeoff thrust | |||
| Fan shaft rpm | 7,344–7,518 | 7,716–8,248 | |
| Gas generator rpm | 15,196–15,452 | 15,452–16,245 | |
| Length | |||
| Width | |||
| Height | |||
| Weight | |||
| Thrust to weight | – | – | |
| TSFCSSL | |||
| Interstage Turbine Temperature | |||
| Overall Pressure ratio | 23:1 | ||
| Bypass ratio | 5:1[17] | ||