Aermacchi is seeking industrial partners for its new M-346 advanced training aircraft, the first two prototypes of which are here at the Paris Air Show.
“We are talking to everybody. Yes, we are talking to EADS and Dassault,” even though they have aspirations to develop rival aircraft,” Aermacchi CEO Carmelo Cosentino told Show News.
Greece has already signed up as an industrial partner on the program, and Poland is the next most likely addition. Aermacchi, in fashion with the partnership strategy of its parent, Finmeccanica, plans to keep a majority share in the program, this time of 51%.
“Greece has committed 60 million euros, which is one-fifth of the share offered to the partners. That means one-tenth of the development money is before us. There is strong industrial as well as military interest from Poland,” said Cosentino. Level One membership is 60 million euros, and Level 2 is 30 million, he explained.
Bread and Butter
While offering the broadest range of trainers of any country in the world (it has sold over 2,000 in 85 countries over the last 30 years), Aermacchi’s daily income depends on building the “cold part” of engine nacelles for airliners such as the Embraer 170 family, the Airbus A320 and A330 families, the A380, and now the Boeing 787. One program alone is running at over 330 nacelles a year.
This part of the business — 40% of Aermacchi’s revenues — will have a far greater impact on the success of the M-346 than one might at first imagine.
Experience in volume production of state-of-the-art technologies and the aggressive cost and price disciplines of the commercial sector are directly applied to the military trainer programs. The result is a commercially minded approach to low-volume production of trainers.
“The commercial business is a gauge of our efficiency,” said Cosentino. “The military sector traditionally has you focusing on performance rather than cost, but this makes us cost-effective.”
The M-346 is the best solution to the various training needs of the 12-nation Eurotrainer program, and the aircraft is here now, Cosentino said. It has been designed rigorously to meet most of the differing requirements of those nations, as well as appeal to others, too.
Aermacchi’s position is that the M-346 will cover most training requirements for the minimum cost over the life of a training program. It has kept down operating and maintenance costs through rugged design and the fact that it is not supersonic. Very little military flying time is spent in the supersonic regime, and handling characteristics needed to train under combat conditions are addressed through the M-346’s aerodynamics, flying capabilities and fly-by-wire flight control system.
“There is a price the market sometimes pays for performance, and sometimes not. So we must produce only what the market is prepared to pay,” Cosentino explained. “I do believe the M-346 is by far the best aircraft available in performance, and that it will be produced at an acceptable market cost and with reasonable industrial margins.”
An industrial partnership must be completed within three years to make the available aircraft within the timeframe demanded by some potential customers. By then the aircraft will also be the centerpiece of integrated training programs in which Aermacchi may not take the lead. “But we will keep control of the industrialization partnership,” he said.
On competition for the M-346 Cosentino said, “I don’t want to be rude, but they have paper programs. They can see our aircraft flying here at Le Bourget.” — John Morris
