Issue 41 Unmanned Systems Technology December/January 2022 PteroDynamics X-P4 l Sense & avoid l 4Front Robotics Cricket l Autonomous transport l NWFC-1500 fuel cell l DroneX report l OceanScout I Composites I DSEI 2021 report

19 ownership relative to the market average, including 20% lower fuel burn and 10% higher cruise power compared with competitors in the same size class. Janek Biskupski is the Catalyst systems leader at GE Aviation, so he’s the ideal person to explain the technologies that underpin this cutting-edge engine. Although he works from Warsaw, Poland, these days, his life and career have taken him across much of Europe, with the Catalyst project seeing him heavily involved with the Turin- based engineers of Avio Aero, and his education spanning Hungary and Finland, and across different industries and engineering disciplines. “My final research project at the Helsinki University of Technology was not actually related so much to aviation but to machine design in general. It was an extension of existing CAD/CAE software to allow more intelligence in the design process,” he recalls. “I created software that could, for example, recognise if a desired feature was producible by an assumed supplier, as well as discerning the cost and other vital parameters to be kept in mind. That therefore enabled immediate feedback to the designer as to whether the design could be produced via the ‘plugged-in’ supplier base they had at the time.” This focus on minute but critical details and specialisation in CAD has been key to Biskupski’s engineering approach to the Catalyst project, which has brought together numerous hardware and software advances from across GE Aviation’s European r&d centres. These include novel compressor designs developed in Bavaria; a cooled turbine produced in Poland; a combustor, full authority digital engine control (FADEC), gearboxes and numerous additively printed parts made in Italy; with all testing performed in the Czech Republic, resulting in a highly future- proofed and ITAR-free turbine engine. Project history Biskupski says the r&d for the Catalyst started in 2015. After two years, which he says is a record development turnaround time for the industry, the prototype of the engine completed its first engine run in December 2017. “In September 2019 we started certification testing, and in 2020 we marked the first installation of the engine on the King Air Flying Test Bed at Berlin Airport,” he adds. “In August 2021, the prototype of the Beechcraft Denali – the launch aircraft for the Catalyst – successfully completed its initial runs. The engine then had its first flight on the King Air 350 at the end of September, and the Denali completed a successful 2 hour 50 minute first flight in November 2021.” A total of 16 test engines have been assembled, and a flightworthy example has been delivered to GE Aviation’s launch customer Textron, which has installed it on its Denali prototype. So far, the system has accumulated more than 2450 hours of testing. “While the Denali is a nine-seater aircraft, the key distinctive features of the engine, its performance, and its ITAR-free condition make the Catalyst a perfect fit for military UAV applications,” Biskupski notes. “We are participating in a campaign with Airbus to supply the propulsion system of the next-generation European MALE remotely piloted UAV, also known as the Eurodrone, and we are in discussions with several military customers around the globe.” Janek Biskupski | In conversation Unmanned Systems Technology | December/January 2022 The Catalyst is GE Aviation’s first engine in 50 years to be designed from a blank sheet, and exploits a range of cutting-edge turbo engine technologies