The competition to power China's planned AE-100 passenger aircraft is intensifying, with rival engine manufacturers extending increasingly more attractive offers of industrial co-operation and co-production.
Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) has stipulated that the joint venture will select an engine primarily on the basis of performance, reliability and life cycle costs. AVIC president Zhu Yuli adds, however, that the "depth of co-operation" with Chinese industry will also be consideration.
With a final decision expected any time between the middle and end of 1997, BMW Rolls-Royce, CFM International and Pratt & Whitney have all announced agreements to put more work into China. The three companies have each offered to expand collaboration further in return for engine exclusivity on the AE-100.
BMW R-R is proposing the BR715-56 and has made a conditional offer to give China responsibility for the engine's high- pressure compressor and low-pressure turbine. It has also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with AVIC to train Chinese engineers in Germany and has signed with Shenyang for a trial batch of engine rings and seals.
R-R has already made Xian Aero Components a sole-source supplier of certain blades and vanes for its RB211-535, Tay and joint-venture BR710 and 715 engines.
It is now discussing a joint venture with AVIC to produce engine-nacelle components.
CFMI is looking to AVIC to select instead the new CFM56-9 for the AE-100 and is also offering low-pressure turbine work. By way of an interim sweetener, General Electric and Snecma have each awarded $8 million contracts to Xian Aero Engines (XAE) and Shenyang to supply low-pressure turbine and high-pressure compressor discs and casings for the CFM56-3/5.
P&W, not to be outdone, is understood to have offered AVIC a 40% stake in the development and production of the planned all-new PW6000, in an effort to get the engine launched on the 90- to 140-seat aircraft.
P&W, as a follow-on to its earlier joint venture with Chengdu Engine, has also signed an MoU with XAE to produce high-pressure and low-pressure compressor blades for its family of JT8D, JT9D, PW2000 and PW4000 power plants. None of these offers, however, has fully satisfied China's "insatiable appetite" for engine technology. say industry sources.
AVIC in particular, is keen to acquire sensitive engine-core technology, including high-pressure turbine and combustor modules, and is attempting to play the three manufacturers off against each other to achieve this.
Furthermore, it is still not clear whether AVIC is prepared to grant any one company engine-manufacturing exclusivity on the aircraft. AVIC has hinted that it might in the end adopt a Boeing 777-type approach and offer airlines a choice of engines. "Whether this fits the AE-100 is still under discussion," says AVIC vice-president Zhang Hongbiao.
Western manufacturers are offering incentives for exclusivity in AE-100 engine supply
Source: Flight International
