The next European engine for combat aircraft

Extract

European Aero Engine Companies assisted by National Research Establishments have a long and successful record in the design, development and manufacture of engines for high performance military fighter aircraft.

Because the cost of developing and producing a new aero engine is now so great, it has become increasingly impracticable for individual European nations to embark on such projects alone. This has resulted in recent years in a number of collaborative European engine programmes. As Fig. 1 shows, the range of European military turbofan engines now in service is largely the result of such collaboration amongst various European countries, and compares with the much more limited US involvement in design collaboration. Figure 1 also shows that the thrust range covered by European military turbofans is very comparable to that of engines of US manufacture.