Following four years of technology investments, strategic agreements and acquisitions, GE Aviation’s new business and general aviation (B&GA) division, is targeting a four-fold increase in annual revenue of around $2 billion, from today’s $500 million, within 10 years.
Brad Mottier, the new vice-president and general manager of the division, is convinced this ambitious target is achievable, despite the fact that just 10 people work in the B&GA division at present. “This sounds like a very small number, until you realise that we are tapping into GE’s core expertise and understand that we are accessing and using the scale of GE business to our advantage,” he says.
For instance, GE Aviation is teaming-up with GE’s global research centre in New York to explore integrated propulsion and aircraft systems for B&GA, while GE and Honda, equal partners in GE Honda Aero Engines, are studying how to develop a broader propulsion package in future market offerings.
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In effect, what Mottier is doing is pulling together many strands that have made GE a large player in business and GA for years – but which have been treated separately by the US-based engine giant. For decades GE has powered thousands of business jets with its CF34, CF700 and CJ610 small turbofans and recently many of the company’s strategic moves have involved the B&GA sector.
These include the GE Honda relationship to produce a new turbofan engine for light business jets; the launch of the GE Honda HF120 turbofan to power both the HondaJet and Spectrum business jets; the acquisition of Smiths Aerospace in 2007; the establishment of a business jet operations centre; the acquisition of the Czech Republic’s Walter turboprop engines company; and the launch of the eCore ‘future generation’ technology programme.
“Our technologies for the B&GA sector have grown considerably,” says Mottier, “and our goal is to create integrated product offerings that are meaningful to B&GA customers. GE now has the opportunity to be a wider provider of power on B&GA aircraft, from propulsion systems to electric power to thermal management.
“Airframers will see innovative concepts emerging and these Tier 1 manufacturers want the engine companies to be Tier 1 too by reducing the number of components sourced from outside and providing one set of software that’s all inclusive, rather than being provided separately for many different electronic systems. Our acquisition of Smiths Aerospace will help us achieve this.”
Although Mottier concedes that GE’s new B&GA division will be operating in “a crowded space” he says that the company simply “has to be a leader by adding value and concentrating on weight, functionality, health monitoring and costs because that’s what our customers – current and potential – tell us they want”.
GE announced this summer that it was acquiring Walter Engines, but has already been working with the Czech manufacturer for around a year and the resulting new derivative engine, the M610H-80, was launched at this year’s Oshkosh AirVenture event.
Although Walter Engines had exhibited at Oshkosh before, the hook-up with GE transformed the company’s experience, says Mottier. “It created far greater interest in the Walter exhibit - more on the first day than throughout the entire event last year - and we sold around 10 of the new engines in the retrofit market”.
Mottier explains that the eCore programme, announced this year, is central to GE’s development of future business jet engines. Targeted to deliver up to 16% better fuel efficiency over GE’s best engines operating today, the programme comprises compressor, combustor and hi-pressure turbine and the company is engaged in the initial design of a new jet engine in the 11,000lb to 16,000lb thrust range for future large business jets and is actively talking with the airframers.
“We will look at using the eCore project for smaller engines too,” says Mottier, “and we’re targeting 2014 for having an eCore engine certified, with a demonstrator running in 2012.”
On the subject of oil prices, Mottier says that the current “around $100 a barrel” isn’t having a dramatic impact on GA jet activity. “I believe that it would need to get to around $170 before we saw much effect,” he says, “although I do believe that higher fuel prices will mean that the growing interest in turboprop engines will continue.”
Finally, GE is celebrating the first anniversary of its business jet operations centre by moving quickly to provide operators of Walter M601 turboprop engines with the same GE support umbrella as the established turbofans. Based in Cincinnati, Ohio, the centre provides rapid and single-contact support to operators of business jets, including those powered by CFM56 engines.
“Right now we are identifying and contacting M601 operators,” says Mottier, “and by the end of this year we plan to provide these operators with the same single-point of contact at our operations centre.” GE is also exploring partnerships with mobile repair parties for M610 engines being operated in the West, as well as M610 engine lease pools.
Source: Flight Daily News
