EADS and Renault withdraw from SMA Engines, set up to develop diesel powerplants
Safran has taken full control of loss-making French general aviation diesel-cycle engine manufacturer SMA Engines, allowing former partners EADS and Renault to withdraw from the joint venture.
SMA was formed in 1997 by Snecma (which recently merged with Sagem to form Safran), EADS’s French predecessor and car-maker Renault, but filed for bankruptcy protection early this year (Flight International, 8-15 February) due to higher-than-expected certification costs. French aerospace equipment and propulsion group Safran has acquired the 66.6% stake it did not already own for an undisclosed sum.
SMA was established to develop an aeronautical version of the Moraine Renault MR200 engine for EADS Socata’s general aviation aircraft. Development of the prototype took longer than expected and involved a staff of around 70 over seven years. Now that the four-cylinder 230hp (170kW) SR305-230 powerplant has received European approval, EADS and Renault were reluctant to continue financing the loss-making venture.
“Several months ago, both EADS and Renault expressed their wish to refocus their activity on core business and exit from SMA’s capital,” says SMA.
Safran will transfer SMA’s headquarters from the Paris suburb of Lognes to Bourges. As part of the reorganisation, former General Electric/Snecma composite fan blade joint venture C-Fan vice- president and finance director Luc Pelon will head the company.
The SR305 is awaiting US approval for retrofit to the Cessna 182 and the company is working on supplemental type certificates for other types and on higher-powered engines.
Sales of the SR305 have been sluggish, with 25 aircraft flying and a backlog of around 150 engines, but Safran says it is “confident that Jet A diesel-cycle piston engines are the future of general aviation”.
JUSTIN WASTNAGE/LONDON
Source: Flight International
