On the Record with LOUIS CHENEVERT, PRESIDENT & CEO, PRATT & WHITNEY
There will be only two-or maybe even one-engines offered on Boeing's
new 7E7 airliner, says Louis Chenevert, president and CEO of Pratt
and Whitney, the world's third largest manufacturer of commercial
jet turbofans. "And one of them will have an eagle on the side,"
he adds, referring to Pratt's famous logo.
Pratt is in active discussions with Boeing as it defines the new
airplane, and is ready to develop an engine based on its existing
technologies in swept fans, and in advanced compressors in the military
F119 and F135 fighter power plants, he told Show News.
"We see this as a fairly low risk program, yet at the same
time it's a stretch in operating economics, fuel burn, and emissions,"
Chenevert said. Balancing this is the business case. "There
are not going to be engines offered by all three manufacturers on
the 7E7," he said. "We can see that just will not work.
We will not do a Boeing 777 again with three engine companies playing-you
fight for the market share but the returns are not there."
At the same time Chenevert is adamant that Pratt will not drop
out. "We are not going to walk away from that market segment,"
he said. While there are no talks about becoming sole source engine,
as GE did on the stretched 777s, partnership could be an option,
but the fact Chenevert named traditional partners such as IHI and
MTU instead of, for example, GE, with which it is partnered on the
GP7200 for the Airbus A380, indicates how Chenevert is viewing that
possibility.
Despite the crisis in commercial aviation, Pratt is very well
positioned for the recovery, Chenevert believes. The company has
focused on developing technologies for the next generations of engines
while shifting its balance of business from 65-70% commercial airline
engines in the 1980s to a much healthier mix of 35% military, 20%
small engines at Pratt & Whitney Canada, and 55% commercial,
aftermarket and space.
"This mix enables me to look through this downturn,"
he said. "We saw our financials outperform our peers last year
both in sales and EBIT, and we will continue to deliver that performance.
It's the new Pratt you see today."
That new Pratt is also one that is proving technology before it
rushes to market, as it works to avoid a repetition of the PW6000
where an insufficiently developed compressor led to Airbus switching
engines to CFM on the A318. "The PW6000 is now fixed, and will
enter service in 2005," Chenevert said. "Had we done technology
readiness the way we do now, that saga would never have occurred.
We learned our lessons and we are now applying them to new programs."
Pratt never considered dropping the PW6000 as it regards that
sized core of 15,000-20,000 pounds thrust as strategically important
for the future. Applications could include UAVs and UCAVs, which
are demanding increasingly powerful engines.
Meanwhile, Pratt's military business is growing as it wins new
programs and existing ones ramp up. Among them are the beginning
of production of the F119 engine on the F/A-22 Raptor, recent sales
of 48 Pratt-powered F-16s to Poland, a $1.4 billion order for another
240 F117 engines for the C-17, and passing of critical design review
on the F135 for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The commercial side has scored its victories, too, with Pratt
displacing Honeywell on the Falcon 2000EX and winning the Falcon
7X business jet, the launch of the PW600 for the Eclipse and Cessna
Mustang baby bizjets, and its $500 million share in the order for
V2500 engines for 115 Airbus narrowbodies at jetBlue.
Chenevert said the PW600 fills what he views as a key market segment,
while he absolutely supports a next generation engine to follow
the V2500 (produced by International Aero Engines, a partnership
between Pratt, Rolls-Royce, MTU and Japanese companies). "We
are committed to driving technology so we are ready when the demand
is there"-which will probably not be before 2010, he said.
Pratt continues to develop the PW800 regional jet-sized engine
with a geared fan and will launch it when it finds an application,
having been beaten to power the Chinese ARJ21 and the Russian Regional
jet.
