F R 8 - 9 7

Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/97 ENGINE MANUFACTURERS SEE GOOD MARKETS by Norbert Burgner Of the engine manufacturers that were at the Aérosalon in Paris, Rolls-Royce in particular was pleased with the recent market development. Including the Airbus order to equip the new A340 models, Rolls-Royce engines are operating on 29 different aircraft, explained Colin Green, Managing Director of Rolls-Royce Aerospace, - "one mor step on the companies way to a one-third market share". He continued, explaining that the company's production strategy, the so called "advanced scaled core philosophy", is designed to react on a very short notice to current market signals at moderate development costs. The Trent 800 core engine is the basis for this approach. The version 500, which is to power the new A340 versions, combines a down-scaled core with a new low-pressure turbine. Fan and systems come from the Trent 700. The result is a high-bypass turbofan in the 250-kN class. The Trent 600 (290 kN), basically like the 500 but with an upflow-core, is to satisfy the needs of the larger versions of the Boeing 747. The Trent 8102, which earmarked for the larger 777 versions, has been increased in capacity by ten percent of power (up to 453 kN) as compared to the basic Trent 892 (408 kN), at the same time using approximately eight percent less fuel. The Trent 900 (244 to 444 kN thrust class), with the 800-Fan but again with a scaled core, is to offer an even better payload/range relation. Pratt & Whitney President Karl Krapek can not follow Rolls-Royce's enthusiasm. Counting all airliner orders of the nineties, his company, as he states, holds a 44,1 percent market share, such being the market leader, followed by General Electric 38,4 percent and Rolls-Royce (17,5 percent). Concerning the new business of the British competitor with Airbus, Krapek said that history - like the "777-adventure" - has shown that offering different engine options for one aircraft model is not profitable to any of the engine manufacturers. Since no agreement of his company with Airbus concerning an exclusive contract for the A340-500/-600 was found, Pratt & Whitney has withdrawn the offer. Nevertheless P & W is optimistic about the Asian-European 100-seater AE31X, being able to offer the PW6000 as the successor of the legendary JT8D. In Paris, Pratt & Whitney signed a letter of intent with the Chinese AVIC concerning a program participation, as did CFM International which is also trying to improve the chances for its CFM56-9 in this bid. Derived from one of the most proven and successful concepts, the CFM56-3, the CFM56-9 supposedly offers five percent less fuel consumption and up to 20 percent lower maintenance costs, at the same power. From page 22 of FLUG REVUE 9/97 Home | Update | Latest Issue | Gallery | FR Profile | Datafiles | FR 8/97 Copyright 1997 by Motor-Presse Stuttgart. All rights reserved. Last updated July 4, 1997 FLUG REVUE, Ubierstr. 83, 53173 Bonn, Germany