At ITP headquarters (Zamudio, Bizkaia) today, Ignacio Mataix, CEO of ITP and Todd J. Kallman, President of Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines, signed a collaboration agreement for manufacturing, engineering and maintenance work for the PurePower® Geared Turbofan™ (GTF) engine. This will mean estimated sales of more than 2,500 million euros over the life of the program.
As put forward in their Strategic Plan 2011-2015, ITP has entered the medium-sized commercial aircraft engine market after the agreement reached with Pratt & Whitney. In the words of Ignacio Mataix, “the contract has double strategic value for ITP. It is our first big contract with Pratt & Whitney and it’s in precisely the one market, single-aisle commercial aircraft, where we had no presence. At the same time, he added, it represents a challenge and a confirmation of the upward trend we have been following here in the ITP Group as a global operator, with a programme that is an excellent way to bring together all the different capabilities at ITP”.
For his part, Todd Kallman, added that “Pratt & Whitney is proud to welcome ITP’s participation on our PurePower family of engines. We look forward to a long and successful relationship through this agreement”.
Collaborator and Industrial Stake
The agreement between ITP and Pratt & Whitney is a risk and revenue sharing arrangement and includes the supply of structures and tubes for all four existing applications of the Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine.
The GTF engine family covers the range from 15,000 to 35,000 pounds of thrust, and is currently selected for the Airbus A320neo aircraft, the Canadian Bombardier C-Series*, the Japanese Mitsubishi Regional Jet and the Russian Irkut MC-21.
The single-aisle aircraft segment is the biggest in commercial aviation with a current worldwide fleet of 12,000 aircraft. Over the next 20 years, this fleet is expected to reach 23,000 aircraft. In order to satisfy the demand generated by this growth in the fleet, worldwide medium-sized engine production during those 20 years will reach over 40,000 units.
As a result of their collaboration in the GTF, ITP will gain a presence in more than one third of all single-aisle commercial aircraft engines at a time when they already have a 50% stake-holding in twin-aisle engines (transatlantic aircraft).
The Geared Turbofan Concept
The Geared Turbofan concept is based on the installation of a gearbox between the low pressure turbine and the fan. This allows the two modules to rotate at different speeds, allowing them to be optimised separately. This in turn leads to significant improvements in efficiency, especially in terms of fuel consumption, noise and gas emissions.
As a risk revenue sharing partner on the Geared Turbofan program, ITP will collaborate closely with P&W to align its industrial capacity with the production ramp-up requirements of the program and will manufacture parts under its responsibility within their industrial group in Spain and Mexico. ITP will invest over 100 million euros in support of this Program.
The ITP group, made up of SENER (53.125%) and Rolls-Royce (46.875%), includes among its activities such areas as Design, Research & Development, Manufacture and Casting, as well as the Assembly and Testing of aeronautical engines and gas turbines. It is also the official maintenance service provider for the majority of the world’s currently active engine manufacturers. The ITP Group has 18 production centres in Spain, Great Britain, Malta, the USA, India and Mexico, and a staff of 2,800 workers.
