The CFM56 features a single-stage fan, and most variants have a three-stage booster on the low-pressure shaft, with four stages in the -5B and -5C variants. The booster is also commonly called the "low-pressure compressor" (LPC) as it sits on the low-pressure shaft and compresses the flow initially before it reaches the high-pressure compressor. The original CFM56-2 variant featured 44 tip-shrouded fan blades, although the number of fan blades was reduced in later variants as wide-chord blade technology developed, down to 22 blades in the CFM56-7 variant.