Turbofan jet engines in passenger aircraft should be checked periodically. However, those that incorporate the largest aircraft, such as the Airbus A380 and the Boeing 777, weigh about seven tons and are up to seven meters long, and there are not many facilities where their health can be properly checked.
One of the most advanced is Zephyr, owned by Air France , located near the Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.
At this plant, some 300 aircraft engines are tested per year. These are dismantled and taken by means of a robotic transport system to the test room, where a crane places them in the correct position.
The section where these machines are examined has walls one meter thick, since during the test they develop temperatures close to 550 ºC and generate a roar of 135 decibels , five times more than what experts consider the pain threshold in humans .
Technicians carry out the test as if they were at the controls of an aircraft. In fact, it is carried out from a separate, windowless cabin, equipped with a replica of the flight instruments. Operations can last between a day and a week.
In other of these plants, the behavior of the mills is studied in various meteorological conditions. The one that the General Electric firm maintains in Winnipeg (Canada), for example, is prepared to verify the effect that ice has on these devices.
