Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation) or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It designs, manufactures and maintains engines for commercial and military aircraft as well as rocket engines for launch vehicles and satellites.
The company employs around 15,700 people across 35 production sites, offices, and MRO facilities worldwide and files an average of nearly 500 patents each year.
Safran Aircraft Engines also notably operates two joint ventures with GE Aerospace: CFM International, the world’s leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines,[2] and CFM Materials.
1945: Snecma was formed when the French aircraft engine manufacturer Gnome & Rhône was nationalised. The name 'Snecma' was an acronym for Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation (in English: 'National Company for the Research and Construction of Aviation Engines').
1946: Initial employees were German engineers, primarily from BMW, located in Decize, France. Group was known as Groupe "O" until 1950. First design product was the ATAR engine.
1961: Snecma and Bristol Siddeley formed a joint venture to produce a high-performance jet engine for the Concorde. The main body of the engine came from the Bristol Olympus, which was further improved with several refinements including the addition of the variable intakes necessary for supersonic flight.
1970: Messier and Snecma agreed to merge their landing gear business. The following year, Messier-Hispano was formed, which was fully acquired by Snecma in 1973. Snecma's landing gear business was further consolidated by the creation of Messier-Hispano-Bugatti (later renamed Messier-Bugatti) in 1977.
In terms of volume, the most impactful commercial aero engine produced by Safran Aircraft Engines is the CFM International CFM56turbofan powerplant. This engine is both developed and manufactured via a 50-50 joint venture company, CFM International, which Safran jointly owns with the American industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE). Established during the 1970s, the CFM56 was not an early success; by April 1979, the joint venture had not received a single order in five years and was allegedly two weeks away from being dissolved.[5] The program was saved when Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Flying Tigers chose the CFM56 to re-engine their DC-8s; shortly thereafter, it was also selected to re-engine the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet of the United States Air Force, this operator being the engine's biggest customer.[5] Following this turn of fortune, tens of thousands of engines have since been produced over the decades. A total of 30,000 CFM56s have been completed by July 2016.[5]
Safran Aircraft Engines is also the main partner for several other engines coproduced with GE, including the CF6-80 and GE90.[6][7] Safran Aircraft Engines is also involved in the Engine Alliance, which manufactures the GP7000 high-thrust turbofan engine, one of the only two powerplants certified to power the twin-decker Airbus A380.[8][9] During the 2010s, Safran started manufacturing its portion of the LEAP engine via the CFM International joint venture; Safran and GE each assemble half of the annual volume.[10] To cope with high demand for the LEAP engine, CFM has duplicated supply sources for 80% of parts and as well as subdivided assembly sites.[11]
Safran Aircraft Engines is also involved in PowerJet, a joint venture business with Russian aero engine specialist NPO Saturn; this company produces SaM146 turbofan engine, which is used to power the Sukhoi Superjet 100regional jet.[12] During 2005, a new production plant was founded in Rybinsk, VolgAero, to manufacture components of the SaM146; additionally, parts and assemblies of other engines produced by PowerJet's two parent companies are also produced on this site.[13]
In terms of military engines, Safran Aircraft Engines produces the Snecma M88 turbofan. This engine was developed to power the Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft.[14] It fulfills numerous stringent performance criteria, including a high thrust-to-weight ratio, low fuel consumption across all flight regimes, and a long engine life.[15] Additional considerations were afforded to both the M88's maintainability and upgrade potential (73 kN to 105 kN using the same core).[16][17][18] Qualification of the M88-2 engine was completed during 1996 while the first production engine was delivered by the end of that year. It is of a modular design for ease of construction and maintenance, as well as to enable older engines to be retrofitted with improved subsections upon availability, such as existing M88-2s being upgraded to M88-4E standard.[19] In May 2010, a Rafale flew for the first time with the M88-4E engine, an upgraded variant with greater thrust and lower maintenance requirements than the preceding M88-2.[20]
During 2008, the European Commission launched an open rotor demonstration led by Safran within the Clean Sky program with 65 million euros funding over eight years : a demonstrator was assembled in 2015, and ground tested in May 2017 on its open-air test rig in Istres, aiming to reduce fuel consumption and associated CO2 emissions by 30% compared with current CFM56 turbofans.[29]
With its 30:1 bypass ratio, it should deliver a 15% improvement over the CFM International LEAP already at 11:1; but Airbus is more interested in the more conventional Ultra High Bypass Ratio (UHBR) turbofan at 15:1, which could be introduced from 2025, offering 5% to 10% better efficiency than the LEAP and to be tested from 2020.[30] Built around the M88's core, the fan blades are slower than the 1980s GE36 due to the reduction gear, lowering noise and the fan can be mounted at the engine front for under-wing configurations.[31] The gearbox and the blade variable-pitch technologies were validated in 100 cycles and 70 hours of tests, including 25% at takeoff thrusts of 21,000–25,000 lbf (93–111 kN), reverse thrust, and rotor imbalance with a blade weight. Afterwards, it was disassembled in April 2018 to examine each part and refine expected wear predictions. GE Aviation was involved through its Italian subsidiary Avio Aero, providing the gearbox and the low-pressure turbine. To be certified, a blade-out event have to be extremely improbable, less than once every billion flight hours as its RTM carbon fiber fan blades will be supported by the in-service LEAP experience.[32]
During December 2019, Safran and MTU announced an agreement to found a 50/50 joint venture to manage the development, production, and after-sales support activities of the new military aero engine intended to power the Future Combat Air System.[33]
In June 2021, Safran presented an updated architecture for its RISE open rotor concept, with a single to 144-156 in (365-396 cm) fan with variable pitch blades forward of a row of static guide vanes, to deliver 30,000lb of thrust (133 kN) with 20% better efficiency than the CFM LEAP.[34]
Moxon, Julian (16–22 March 1986). "Snecma advances M88 demonstrator". Flight International. 129 (4003). Surrey, UK: IPC Transport Press: 26. ISSN0015-3710. Archived from the original on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 14 May 2017.
€ 10.452 billion (2018)[1]
