Europrop International (EPI) performed the first TP400-D6 engine control and monitoring system (CMS) test in Villaroche late in May, the consortium announced just before the show. The TP400 is the turboprop engine designed for the Airbus A400M military transport aircraft.

The CMS includes the electronic control unit, the electronic protection and monitoring unit, the fuel pump, the fuel-metering unit, the fuel-cooled oil cooler, the high-pressure compressor variable stator vanes actuators and the fuel filter. In Snecma’s main development and production facility, near Paris, a new wet test rig involving fluids such as fuel and oil was built to closely replicate real operating conditions of the engine.

Snecma and Hispano-Suiza (now part of Safran) and MTU are in charge of the CMS. They plan to validate it before the first full engine test, pegged for August. Certification of the TP400 is slated for October 2007 with the A400M first flight taking place shortly after. The A400M will be powered by four 11,000-shp TP400s.