GE Aviation ties up with plane maker Textron to produce new turboprop aircraft

America’s GE Aviation has teamed up with helicopter maker Textron to produce an all-new turboprop aircraft and will supply a family of engines to the general aviation market. GE is targeting more than US$1 billion (AU$1.4 billion) in annual sales from engines by 2020.

Textron makes Cessna, Beechcraft and Hawker airplanes and Bell helicopters. It is the largest user of small turboprop engines. Textron also supplies military tiltrotor aircraft to the US government.

GE Aviation’s advanced turboprop engine project is aiming to take on a widely used engine by United Technologies unit Pratt & Whitney known as the PT6, with its track record of five decades and more than 51,000 units.

GE also plans to invest US$400 million (AU$559 million) for a new factory in Europe. The new venture aims to produce an all-new single-engine aircraft that can seat up to 12 passengers, the companies said, reports Reuters. According to Textron, the range and speed are above 1,500 nautical miles and 280 knots. GE said Textron's decision to develop an all-new aircraft using its engine fully justified its investment.

Ambitious targets

Brad Mottier, head of GE business and general aviation, said the new engine is already technologically proven at GE’s larger jetliner and military engines and will adapt it to an engine suitable for single and twin-engine general aviation aircraft and helicopters.

“Our plan is to create a family of engines like Pratt successfully did, and we’re talking to other airframers now, aiming to create a new class of aircraft. This is a big move for GE Aviation. We want to be a major player in this market,” Mottier said.

He said the new engine’s capacity will maximise to 1,650 horsepower and will be extremely fuel efficient. It will burn 20 percent less fuel than the competing PT6 and create 10 percent more thrust at cruising altitude because of integrated computer control of both the propeller and engine. The propeller maker has not been finalised, Textron said. But GE's Dowty Propellers will be a strong contender, Mottier said.

GE has been producing a smaller PT6 competitor known as the H80, with 850 horsepower.

Win win scenario

GE Aviation has been gearing up for long to take on Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PT6 line. With the 1,300-shp turboprop ready to power Textron Aviation’s new single-engine turboprop (SETP) Brad Mottier is realistic when he calls it the biggest program in his 35-year aviation career. Evidently, there is fierce competition among engine suppliers, including those not known in the turboprop market.

The launch will fill out GE’s business and general aviation portfolio. The target is ambitious. Seven years ago, GE’s aviation business was led by one-engine with an average US$75 million (AU$105 million) revenue to the portfolio. Now, GE is anticipating US$1 billion by 2020 and more.

The new engine from GE will carry some overlapping traits with the its smaller H80, as in the propeller gearbox style, reports AIN online.

“It’s a reverse-flow engine, the air enters the engine near the back of the engine and flows forward and out through exhaust stacks on the side. In that respect, it’s similar to the H Series,” Mottier noted.

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