Airbus Slot Seen Key to Narrowbodies

Pratt & Whitney will do anything it can" to launch its new PW6000 turbofan engine and regain a foothold in the single-aisle, narrowbody airliner market it once dominated, according to Karl Krapek, president of the world's second largest supplier of aero engines.

Winning selection on the proposed 100-passenger Airbus A319M5 "is absolutely critical," he told Show News, "because if we miss here I don't think we can get on the Boeing 717 for a period of time." And, he added, "We will do anything we can to get on the 717. We've been trying, and we will keep on trying."

Krapek admits that complacency and "mistakes of the past" led to Pratt losing its 90% share of the narrowbody airliner market to CFM Industries and, to a minor extent, to the IAE V2500 in which it is itself a partner. Pratt's venerable JT8D engine has been in production for some 30 years, and provides $2 billion a year in spare parts revenue, but it is seriously outclassed by the much newer CFM56 and V2500. Pratt's answer is the 15,000- 25,000-pound thrust PW6000, which is still seeking a launch customer.

"It all boils down to the PW6000," Krapek said. "Is Airbus going to do the M5? If so, can we get on it with the PW6000? I believe we can. I would say we are extending ourselves to do that."

Krapek said Pratt is so determined to win the M5 it will even consider taking an equity stake in the M5 program.

"Everybody is going pretty far, as this is strategically important," Krapek said. "But economics do bear in this industry. You can't give things away, but you must be aggressive at launch, because this is a winner-takes-all business. It's a 75-year product cycle, and if you miss the first one, you miss it forever."

That means that while Krapek is offering most attractive prices on the PW6000, Pratt is depending on internal efficiencies to drive the cost of the engines even lower in order to generate a profit. "This isn't business as usual," Krapek said. "Business as usual is where you go design an engine and you see where the cost ends up, and then you discount it. This time we're setting a cost out of the factory that's unheard of so we can make a profit on the engine and still delight the airframer with a very good price."

Krapek admits that Pratt is some way behind rival GE Aircraft Engines in driving for greater efficiency and increased value for the customer, but is catching up fast. "They started ahead of us as a low cost producer. I think we have people as good or better than GE, but they have a process (Six Sigma) and we haven't had a process. But we finally got the call at Pratt, and we've made a lot of progress."

Lessons learned from developing the PW6000 to cost have been applied throughout the company, and are bringing significant advantages in the both the commercial and military sectors.

Krapek believes that if the PW6000 can find a home on the M5 and the Boeing 717, it will be considered for the 737-currently powered exclusively by CFM. Impossible? "Everyone said you couldn't get on the 737, and then in 1992 we got a chance-clip the fan two inches to 61 inches and pay for flight test-and Pratt said 'No.' That was a bad mistake.
"But the M5 absolutely will be our entry. We can bring a big customer or two; I think with that combination-bring a customer, with our engine-we can get on."

Pratt's other proposed narrowbody engine, the geared-fan PW8000, is also seeking a launch airframe, although Krapek believes it will transform the Airbus A320/321 into a transcontinental airplane. Does launch of the PW8000 depend on a success for the PW6000? "It sure would be helpful, but we have not yet decided that if we don't get the 6000 launched will we go ahead and launch the 8000?" Perhaps, he mused, if Airbus wants the PW8000 badly enough it will help Pratt launch the 6000.

Apart from failure to penetrate the narrowbody airliner market, Krapek is happy with performance at Pratt. "This year we'll do $7.6 billion in revenues," he pointed out. One sixth is contributed by military programs, one sixth by Pratt & Whitney Canada, and about $1 billion by aftermarket repair and overhaul (excluding spare parts).

"Then there's the large commercial engine business, which is as competitive as hell," he said. "But we have derivative engines to put on derivative Boeing aircraft."

For Farnborough, Krapek notes Pratt is here with improving reliability on all its big engines, and a slight increase in market share this year. Parts revenues from the old narrowbody JT8Ds are actually increasing as they remain longer in the fleets than expected, partly due to the addition of hush kits.

"You have to have financial stability so you can do some of the stuff that has long term impact, so you can secure your future, and that's the phase we're in," he said. "We feel under control and we're driving harder than ever. I will be smiling at Farnborough much more this year than ever before as I feel the company is much more in control of its future."