"It is very easy to say when I am losing that it is due to
politics, and when I am winning that I am the best. But here we
don't do that."
That's the response of Turbomeca chairman and CEO Emeric d'Arcimoles
to GE Aircraft Engines blaming politics for its losing so many
international helicopter competitions lately. GE says it will
now develop a helicopter engine so technologically advanced that
politics can no longer be the determining factor.
Turbomeca has been in the driving seat, winning numerous competitions
against GE's 1,600-2,400 shp T700: nine countries have now selected
the RTM322 to power their NH90s or EH101s, with orders for more
than 1,300 engines worth almost $1.5 billion. Among them are Denmark,
Finland, Norway, Portugal and Sweden, while Turbomeca also displaced
the GE T700 on the UK's WAH-64 Apache attack helicopters. GE (and
its engine partner FiatAvio) has won selection only on Italy's
EH101s and NH90s, the Canadian EH101 Cormorants, and a couple
of EH101s in Japan.
The RTM322 (developed jointly with Rolls-Royce and MTU) is a later
design than the T700. Beginning with a baseline 2,100 shp, it
has growth potential to 3,300 shp-enough for the proposed US101
and for talk of it potentially replacing the T700 in Sikorsky's
S-92 at some time in the future.
"This is making GE fight all the harder," says d'Arcimoles,
who adds, "we cannot afford to lose any market, even if it
is for only one helicopter."
The crucial competition will be for the Americanized EH101, to
be built by Bell Helicopter under subcontract to Lockheed Martin.
But before then Oman will likely select an engine for its proposed
EH101s, and the Singapore Navy will choose between the Eurocopter
Super Puma and the NH90 to fill its requirement for six utility
helicopters. If it buys the Super Puma, Turbomeca is home and
dry, as it is the only engine on that helicopter. But if the NH
90 wins, then RTM322 will take on the T700 once again.
