The x48B engine
There’s a truck zipping up and down the runway at the Big Bear City Airport today (April 9), though that truck is toting a new Boeing turbo jet engine. Explains Norman Princen, chief engineer for Boeing, “Our program is called X48B, and our plane looks kind of like a B2 bomber. We’re flight testing it at Edwards Air Force Base, but today we are here testing the turbo fan engine, which makes 45 pounds of thrust. JetCat makes the core engine, and Boeing designed the turbo fan around that. We’ve got it mounted on top of a pickup truck, and we’re running up and down the runway.” Once the Boeing engineers complete their high-altitude exercises in Big Bear, it’s back to Edwards Air Force Base at day’s end. But, for now, Princen and his team are enjoying their time on the runway in Big Bear as, he says, “It’s beautiful up here.”
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