EBACE Show News - May 20, 2008 - (Page 66) EBACE 2008 GE Aviation Begins GA Business Foray Underscoring its new-found commitment to business and general aviation as a lucrative generator of income, GE Aviation has formed a new unit to embrace all its activities in those areas. Headed by former global MRO and support chief Brad Mottier, the new unit—named Business and General Aviation—is making its debut here at EBACE. Ironically GE has never designed and developed an engine for business or general aviation—its products have all been derivatives of military programs and its focus has been on those markets as low risk incremental income. Now that’s all changing. The joint venture with Honda— t h e w o r l d ’s l a r g e s t - v o l u m e manufacturer of engines with 19 million produced last year—on the GE Honda engine and the acquisition last year of Smiths Aerospace for $4.8 billion propelled GE Aviation solidly into business aviation not only as a supplier of engines but of avionics, flight management systems, power generation, landing gears and aerostructures. And this summer GE will seal the acquisition of the Czech engine manufacturer Walter, placing it firmly in the turboprop arena of general aviation. In many ways the acquisitions of CF34-3 Turns 25 GE Aviation is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the CF34-3 engine that powers the Bombardier Challenger with the forecast of another 500 Challengers over the next 10 years. That will bring the total to 1,200 Challengers—it already powers 700 of them with an engine derived from the TF34 developed for the military A-10 ‘Warthog’ ground attack aircraft. GE Targets Walter 601 Turboprop GE Aviation already has plans to develop the Walter 601 turboprop, a rugged 700 shp-class (takeoff power) engine, after it closes the acquisition of Walter Engines by the end of June. “We can take some of the GE advanced materials and computational fluid dynamics capabilities from our large engines and, where it’s appropriate, move it down into small engines and produce what I think is going to be a really differentiated product,” GE Aviation’s business and general aviation head Brad Mottier told Show News. “Our initial focus will be to provide upgrades and improvements on that engine, primarily in the retrofit market, allthough there are some new applications as well.” A multi-generational approach will result in new models with more power as well as retrofits, Mottier said. More than 4,500 M601s had been delivered by the end of 2006, with some 1,500 remaining in service. GE Aviaton will also market the M601. Mottier agreed with Walter CEO Michael Cerny’s observation that Walter knocking on the door at Hawker Beechcraft would receive a very different reception from GE asking to be let in. “GE brings to the party not just technology but also world wide product support which has been one of the challenges for Walter,” said Mottier. Smiths and Walter have brought GE Aviation what it sought in the failed merger with Honeywell, though on a smaller scale. Mottier’s bailiwick will include the CF34-3 turbofan engines on the Challengers, the legacy CJ610 and CF700 turbojets on elderly Lear Jets and Falcons, GE’s interests in the GE Honda engine, the Walter 601 turboprop, applications for the secret 10,000-pounds-thrust engine GE will develop if it can find a launch airplane, and worldwide customer support for business and general aviation. It also includes application of technologies from GE Aviation Systems (the old Smiths) to engine products, and greater integration of powerplants and (Smiths) systems to offer future airplane pro- grams savings in weight, better value and lower maintenance. “We intend to be a major player,” Mottier told Show News, noting that GE insists on double-digit growth from all its business units. “Right now we’re in the process of doing our first long-range study of this segment, and in the next month or two we will draw up some tactical objectives. “In a year or two we will be hitting our stride and will be more coordinated than we are today. You’re going to see a larger GE Aviation presence on new applications and you’re going to see more focus on the support and upgrade and retrofit of existing platforms and also existing GE Aviation products.” —John Morris “We’ve got some additional proposals out for GE Honda that have not yet been disclosed. We have some other engines under development for different thrust ranges, and we have a strategy for a multi-generation product plan that we’re going to be launching on the Walter engines as well.” —Brad Mottier of GE Aviation’s new Business and GA unit 66 May 20, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews
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