This is what they look like and RR being an engine designer and manufacturer probably did their own instrumentation work and saved a pile of money there so it is likely that the $70 million spent may have been for the structural modifications and also for certification.arvin wrote:The approximate cost to rig up a used 747 to make a test bed is $70 million. This figure is from rolls royce who bought a 747 from qantas recently.chetak wrote:
There is not enough utility for a DRDO owned testbed and it will take many millions more to instrument and configure the aircraft as a testbed not to mention grounding it for up to a year or even a year and a half.
While I appreciate where you are coming from, it may not necessarily be the view of the govt to do this primarily because of the low confidence levels which have been the unfortunate fall out of the very lengthy gestation period of the kaveri engine and yet the program continues to be in the doldrums having plateaued out quite some time ago.
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https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/roll ... index.html
That is around 500 crore rupes which can easily be obtained by say GOI selling a small land parcel in
So Bo. Or compare that amount with 69000 cr bail out package for bsnl & mtnl.
I cant see how they are going to test kaveri turbofan without a test bed. And what about testing the NAL - Drdo turboprop for replacing the PT6A on saras and HAL HTFE 25 and Resurrected Kaveri with afterburners and so on. Dont know how much Russia charges per test, but this 500 cr sure looks cheaper in the long run when we have many more aero engines program.
The instrumentation alone would have cost them a bomb.
better a bird in hand rather than a pie in the sky.
If at all we go for a testbed, why the 747 which is costly as well as humongously expensive to operate.
We only have the smaller engines, if at all, to test so a smaller aircraft should do us well enough.
Rest assured that our guys are not in the GE9X/RR Trent league and nor are they likely to be any time soon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=995i8v28QEU
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