Snecma president Jean-Paul Bechat has rejected a Rolls-Royce offer to join in development of its Trent 900 engine for the forthcoming ultra-large capacity aircraft.
"Our natural loyalties rest with General Electric," he says, adding that R-R is already a competitor on small, medium and large power plants ."It is difficult to form such an alliance with a major competitor," he says.
GE and Pratt &Whitney - developing their GP7000 turbofan for the Boeing 747-500/600X range and the Airbus A3XX - invited Snecma to join the programme at the Farnborough air show in September. The French company is already teamed with GE through the CFM International partnership and on other GE engines, including the GE90 powering the Boeing 777, in which it has a 25% risk-sharing stake.
Snecma is "delighted" at being courted by the two groups, saying that "it proves we are still regarded as a significant player in the global engine business". It has yet to respond officially to the invitations.
Visiting Paris, R-R chairman Sir Ralph Robbins regretted the "lost opportunities" for co-operation with Snecma in the 1970s. He proposed that the Trent 900 could serve as a vehicle for a European alliance to rival that of the US giants.
Source: Flight International
