testing talk
AEROSPACETESTINGINTERNATIONAL.COM // MARCH 2020 53
years of aviation in Poland – the Institute of Aviation
itself dates back to 1926. So, it’s an organization with vast
experience, with the best of two companies combined.
WHAT IS THE LATEST AND GREATEST
EQUIPMENT AND FACILITIES AT THE EDC?
Our partner, Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of
Aviation is a major player in our infrastructure. It’s a
research institute, but it’s not the type of institute with a
menial type of office with some computers, it has
laboratories where we can test the physics.
The strategic infrastructure investments within
Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of Aviation are
driven by business decisions, focused primarily on longterm
cooperation with GE globally and locally. We have
test laboratories here that are used by GE, which is a big
advantage for the whole organization, because we can
really have the best mix of theoretical knowledge and
practical industrial experience.
The Łukasiewicz Research Network - Institute of
Aviation provided us with a really industrial style
campus, which allows us to have large laboratories. Some
of them are closer to the size of factories. If you consider
that we’ve had to test the largest fans ever designed for
turbofan engines here and that it used close to 6.3MW of
power, it has to be as large as a factory because it’s testing
full-size aviation equipment.
We have a very well-established materials laboratory
too. I call it the mother of all the other laboratories
because it was the first that worked for the EDC. It
started with just one small microscope in the corner and
now we have some of the world’s most advanced
machines surrounded by all the possible equipment we
could need. It’s one of the top-class materials laboratories
in this part of the world.
We are proud that the most recent of these
laboratories were designed by us, with some help from
our colleagues from outside. A lot of innovation and
creativity went into setting up all our laboratories.
WHAT INNOVATION ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF
AT THE EDC?
I’m proud of the most recent advancements we’ve applied
to the Catalyst engine, mainly in the areas of heat
transfer and cooling. We’ve made tremendous progress
improving these technologies recently.
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