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This year’s Farnborough air show will be a “landmark” for CFM International, says chief executive Jean-Paul Ebanga, as it ends an eight-year development phase of the Leap programme and embarks on the next stage – entry into service. The Leap-1A for the Airbus A320neo received final approval on 31 May, clearing the way for aircraft deliveries this summer. Meanwhile, the Leap-1B-powered Boeing 737 Max flew for the first time this year ahead of its 2017 service entry, and CFM is “working hard with Comac” to ensure the first flight of the C919, with the Leap-1C, takes place later this year.
“We are closing one of the most fascinating and demanding periods in CFM history,” says Ebanga, an almost 30-year Safran veteran who has headed the Franco-US joint venture since 2011. “Eight years ago at Farnborough, we announced the launch of the Leap and the extension of the [CFM International] partnership until 2040. This was the commitment of two companies to invest heavily in a new family of engines. Now, in 2016, with entry into service imminent, we have transformed that vision into a damn good reality.”
Ebanga adds: “We are exactly where we wanted to be five years ago when we released the schedule. We are executing a very intense flight-test programme on the -1B with four flight-test aircraft. The -1C is also on track and looks like [it will be] certificated by year-end. We are working hard with Comac to prepare the first flight.”
At Boeing’s Seattle facilities, flight-testing on the 1-B – which is considerably different in configuration from the -1A and -1C – is “proceeding as smoothly as we experienced on the -1A”, he insists.
Production of the CFM56, which the new-generation powerplant replaces, will continue into the 2020s. However, with 10,500 orders for the three versions of the Leap since 2008, the “fastest-selling engine ever” has firmly become the flagship product of the General Electric and Safran joint venture. Now, with CFM preparing to move from development and testing of the Leap to volume production, the emphasis is switching to airline customer support and meeting extremely demanding production schedules as Airbus and Boeing move towards a monthly narrowbody output rate of 60 or beyond.
Ebanga likens the way CFM is confronting this production challenge to a famous stage in his country’s biggest sporting event. “To win the Alpe d’Huez [an iconic Alpine ascent in the Tour de France] you don’t just have to be a good climber; you have to speed up before the bottom of the slope to ensure you are at the front when you go up the slope,” he says. “In the same way, we have been running flat out to make sure we have the velocity to climb successfully.”
He maintains that two key initiatives have helped CFM prepare. First, unlike on the CFM56 programme, CFM took the decision “early in the programme” to dual-source all major components “to mitigate any risk of there being a problem”, says Ebanga. With established suppliers on the CFM56, this was a “long process”, he admits. “But today we are really happy with the situation.” As a second insurance policy, CFM has introduced a process called a run-up rate, where it increases production for a limited period to check what problems it creates and how these can be solved. It carried out one trial in 2015 and is preparing for a second.
“It means we can experiment with the rate we will experience a year from now,” he says. “By doing so, we have the time to introduce appropriate corrections to make sure that, when we face it in reality, the organisation’s muscle will be on an par with the demand.” Returning to his Tour de France metaphor, he adds: “You have the peloton running at 35km/h, but one guy will strike for five minutes at 40km/h to extract himself from the pack. We are working at full speed to produce the engines we need, but have sped up further to hit the rate we will need in six months or a year.”
As on the CFM56, Safran and GE are each responsible for modules of the Leap – the French company for the low-pressure turbine and fan, and GE for the core – as well as managing their own supply chains. Final assembly remains split equally between plants in Evendale, near Cincinnati and Villaroche, near Paris. This might be viewed as a further complication when it comes to meeting the ramp-up, but 42 years of producing more than 22,000 CFM56s has meant both companies are used to smoothly managing this transatlantic workshare arrangement, says Ebanga.
Rival Pratt & Whitney beat CFM into service by a few months with its PW1100G for the Airbus A320neo family. However, the geared turbofan engine’s teething problems – deliveries have effectively been on hold – have passed the initiative back to the Leap. With exclusivity on the Max, the Leap has been pulling ahead of its competitor in the orders battle for A320neo customers, with key wins from AirAsia, Lion Air, EasyJet and American Airlines, among others. “We are currently 55% of the market in terms of orders,” says Ebanga. “We are thrilled by the commercial success.”
CFM has also changed its aftermarket approach since the Leap’s launch, when for the first time Safran and GE combined their offerings into the jointly branded CFM Services. Four years ago, CFM also began embedding field engineers with the first Leap customers. Two years later it recalled “the best of the best” of these engineers and put them “right in the middle of the production team”, says Ebanga. “As we start entry into service we will send these guys back to the field so customers will benefit from some of the most experienced, knowledgeable engineers on the market.”
Even as the Leap gets ready to ramp up, CFM56 output has barely slowed, with little of the gap problem that besets manufacturers when one programme replaces another. With production of engines for military variants of the 737, such as the P-8 Poseidon, as well as spares, set to continue into the 2020s, the programme is very secure for now. “As long as Airbus and Boeing produce the Ceo and the NG, we will support them,” says Ebanga. “In the first five months of this year, we sold 700 CFM56s. That is a pretty good level for an engine that is going to stop production.”
Source: Flight Daily News
