On the Record with
FRANCOIS COURTOT, VICE-PRESIDENT AERO ENGINES, TURBOMECA
Unlike its competitors, Turbomeca makes almost nothing but helicopter engines, so all of its resources are committed to that specialty.

That's the proud claim of Francois Courtot, aero engines VP at the French company. "We are totally devoted to that market-it is our life. And we intend to remain the world leader," he said. Turbomeca is about to change hands and move from the largely benign ownership of the Labinal industrial group to the Snecma aerospace family. But Courtot sees business as usual.

"We don't expect any immediate changes," he said-an outlook echoed by Snecma chairman Jean-Paul Bechat.

Turbomeca currently powers almost one out of every two civilian and parapublic helicopters flying in the western world. Its largest single customer is Eurocopter, followed by the UK Ministry of Defence with an order for 352 RTM322 engines for its EH101 and WAH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
But Turbomeca's biggest victory to date has been on the NH90, where it beat GE's T700 to power the twin-engined helicopters for France, Germany and the Netherlands. The initial contract is for 400 engines, with another 500 as those three countries complete the helicopter program. This selection alone will be worth $1 billion to Turbomeca over the life of the NH90, Courtot said. The total number of RTM322s on order or selected now stands at 1,300.

He is particularly pleased at beating the T700. "The GE engine has been around much longer, and its direct operating and life cycle costs are well known. We are not so well known-but our figures are better.

"So far we have won 80% of the market where we directly compete with the T700," he said, referring to the NH90, the UK Apache and EH101.

The Turbomeca will be the only engine offered on the NH 90 in the Nordic countries' competition for 70-90 helicopters, and Turbomeca expects to gain significant export orders over the next few years, he said.

Turbomeca is heralding another recent win: Hindustan Aeronautics selected its TM333 as sole powerplant on the twin-engined Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH) and ordered 50 more engines, for a total of 80. "This is a very important program," Courtot told Show News. "We expect them to build 300-400 ALHs over the next 15 years."

Meanwhile Turbomeca continues to dominate the light twin-engine helicopter market, its position strengthened by a contract to deliver 60 Arrius 2K2 engines for 30 Agusta A109 Power light utility helicopters for the South African Air Force. The Arrius was selected over the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW206 series, Courtot noted, and holds a commanding lead over that rival in the Eurocopter EC135 with about 75% of that market.

Turbomeca has more recently been chosen to power 10 civil A109 Power helicopters for an undisclosed civilian operator. "With this order we are consolidating our position," Courtot said.

By John Morris