Companies, financiers and politicians in Spain's northern Basque region have managed to create an aerospace industry out of nothing in little more than a decade.
César Fernández de Velasco, Gamesa Aeronautica's director-general, says that in the 1980s, engineering firm Sener developed its own turbine technology. It also brought together the Spanish state holding company, INI/ SEPI, and Rolls-Royce to create ITP to participate in Eurojet. Gamesa also decided to apply its composite materials know-how to the aerospace industry, becoming a risk-sharing partner with Embraer to work on the wings of the ERJ-145 through its subsidiary Gamesa Aeronautica.
In a short time, these companies started strategic partnerships with Allied Signal, General Electric and Rolls-Royce. They also worked alongside Sikorsky on the S-92 helicopter and the IAI Astra programmes.
De Velasco says: "Then we created the Hegan aeronautical cluster to co-ordinate relations with smaller companies and local universities for R&D, and we created the CTA engine and structures-testing facility. The 28 companies in Hegan have created 4,200 jobs and are now producing sales of more than €600 million ($700 million)."
Fernandez says Gamesa is in the process of creating a production centre in Seville to support the EADS-Casa/Airbus projects, although initially it will produce empennages for the Bombardier CRJ700/900. Another project is an assembly site in Brazil near Embraer.
On the North American market, he says: "We are certainly interested in partnering with Boeing around their 7E7 project. A US production site could be a future option." ITP's chief executive Ricardo Martí Fluxá underlines the importance of risk-sharing as opposed to sub-contracting to create proprietary technology: "Over the last seven years we have invested €253 million in R&D, amounting to 18% of our sales. Now we own technologies to build light titanium structures, radial structures and high-temperature alloys, as well as the vectored fighter aircraft nozzle, which no other European manufacturer is able to offer.
"Based on this experience, we have evolved to become an integrated engine manufacturer. Engines from Allison and Honeywell, the R-R Trent 500 and Trent 900 and the Europrop TP400 all use, or will use, our low-pressure turbine. Despite being a newcomer, our worldwide share is 8% of the large-engine turbine market."
Source: Flight International
