On the Record with
EMERIC D'ARCIMOLES, CHAIRMAN & CEO, TURBOMECA

Turbomeca Boosts American Service Efforts

Turbomeca has decided to invest heavily in customer support in North America, the French firm's largest geographic market and one with some of the most demanding operators.

"We decided to have a complete stand-alone zone in North America. No more engines will cross the ocean for repair," new chairman & CEO Emeric d'Arcimoles told Show News. "That is not the case today."

The new strategy entails building a facility in Canada, probably near Montréal/Mirabel, to repair and overhaul Arriel and then Makila II engines.

Bricks and mortar also feature in Turbomeca's plans for customer service in Brazil, where itis building a facility on land owned by parent Snecma at Rio de Janeiro.

And in South Africa, contracts are being finalized to set up New Denel Airmotive-Turbomeca from the acquired assets of Denel Airmotive. It will be the service center for the whole of Africa for repair and overhaul of Turbomeca engines.

With 17,000 turbine engines in service with 1,200 customers in 120 countries, Turbomeca powers almost half of civilian and parapublic helicopters 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.

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 in prospect as those three countries complete their helicopter programs. The NH90 alone will be worth $1 billion to Turbomeca over the life of the program.

In light twins, where Turbomeca faces direct competition for choice of engines on the EC 135 and Agusta A109 Power, D'Arcimoles' firm has been holding its own, he says.

"We basically have two thirds of the market on the EC 135, even though we cannot yet offer the more powerful Arrius 2B2 engine" which will be able to counter the uprated PW206B2 when certified at the end of this year. Turbomeca recently delivered its 1,000th Arrius engine to Eurocopter.

The battle for the light twin-engined helicopters will reach a new intensity as the A109 Power with Turbomeca engines becomes available, making two airframes where customers can choose between Pratt & Whitney Canada and the French company. Turbomeca got a strong start with an order for at least 60 Arrius 2K2 engines for the A109 Powers chosen by South Africa as its Light Utility Helicopter, followed by an order for ten from an unidentified civilian operator.

By John Morris