CFM International (CFMI) and Aviation Industries of China (AVIC) have joined forces in a Joint Leadership Council to coordinate activities and promote a closer working relationship between the two organisations.
Talks are being pursued at the Paris air show between Gerard Laviec, CFMI chairman and chief executive officer, and AVIC president Zhu Yu Li, whose 30-strong delegation is touring Le Bourget.
The Joint Leadership Council is focusing on the development status of AVIC's AE-100 airliner programme and the powerplant for this 100-seat aircraft.
The Chinese plan to build this in partnership with Airbus Asia, grouping the European consortium Airbus Industrie's Aerospatiale, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, British Aerospace, Construcciones Aeronauticcas SA of Spain, plus Finmeccanica of Italy.
The proposed airliner is scheduled to enter service in 2003, and the aircraft manufacturers are busy finalising the scheme with an announcement expected by the year's end.
Of course, CFMI - which groups engine manufacturers General Electric of the US and France's Snecma in a 50-50 partnership - has put forward its CFM56-9 in competition with BMW-Rolls-Royce's BR 715 and Pratt & Whitney's PW6000 engines.
Confident
"CFMI is confident," says Laviec. "We will win."
CFMI vice-president William S Clapper says that as a proposed powerplant for the AE-100, the CFM56-9 combines proven technology with inherent CFM56 reliability - nine million flight hours for the CFM56 family of engines.
The CFM56-9 is a low-cost derivative engine sized to meet the thrust requirements of the 100-passenger aircraft market, says Clapper.
It will have 5% better specific fuel consumption and 20% lower direct maintenance costs than the industry-leading CFM56-3 which powers the Boeing 737-300/-400/-500 aircraft at the same thrust level.
The technology is currently being proven in service on the CFM56-5B/P and will enter service on the CFM56-7 later this year.
The CFM56-9 shares a common core with these engines, thus providing significant operating cost benefits to airlines already operating CFM56-powered fleets, including 17 Chinese carriers now using more than 300 such engines.
The CFM56-5C engine reached a major milestone earlier this year when the 100th Airbus Industrie A340 was delivered to Singapore Airlines.
Snecma and its GE partner expect strong growth in production rates. More than 750 CFM56 engines will be built in 1997 and 900 in 1998, up from the 389 built in 1995 and 443 in 1996.
Generating
The French-American company last year sold 1,200 engines generating $2.7billion and expects to earn $4.5billion this year and $5.5 billion in 1998.
CFMI has also acquired Iceland's Shannon Engine Support (SES) which provides short-term lease of engines to 130 carriers needing quick replacements as they repair or carry out maintenance on their own engines.
Source: Flight Daily News
