Cleaning Up With Next-Gen Jets

Lightweight materials are already set to slash the cost of flying airliners, so planemakers are focusing on more efficient engines

by Carol Matlack

The buzz at this year's Paris air show was about the plastics revolution—a new generation of aircraft built from tough, lightweight composite materials. Boeing (BA) says its new, all-composite 787 Dreamliner, set for launch next year, will cost 20% less to operate than conventional planes, thanks mainly to its reduced weight. Airbus makes a similar promise for its rival A350 XWB model, now under development.

But already the industry is preparing for another green breakthrough, this time in jet engines. Manufacturers such as General Electric (GE) and Pratt & Whitney (UTX) are racing to develop new engines that could take a quantum leap in performance, with dramatically lower fuel consumption and sharply reduced noise and pollutant emissions.

"The airline guys are saying they want another 20% [lower operating costs]," says Tom Williams, executive vice-president for aircraft programs at Airbus. With airframes already moving to lighter materials, most future gains will have to come from engine improvements.

Adding momentum to the engine makers' task is the potentially huge market for super-efficient engines. Within a decade, the two big planemakers are expected to launch successors to their narrowbody Boeing 737 and the Airbus A320 lines, the world's best-selling planes. Airlines worldwide ordered more than 1,300 of these aircraft last year, accounting for more than two-thirds of all large commercial jet orders.

Simpler, Cleaner, Cheaper

Makers of regional jets, such as Bombardier and Embraer (ERJ), also will be looking for new engines. "It's a big, big market, and it will also position us for better performance in the long-haul widebodies [such as the 787 and A350]" says Todd Kallman, president of Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines.

Just how much better could these new engines be? Pratt says the model it has under development would be 50% quieter and 50% less polluting than today's engines. Those are key cost factors, because planes with noisier, dirtier engines increasingly are subject to higher taxes and airport landing fees, and sometimes have to fly longer routes to avoid heavily populated areas.

On top of that, the new engine would burn nearly 15% less fuel, in part because the engine would be made of lighter materials. That not only helps with operating costs but also would lower carbon emission taxes that are likely to be levied against airlines around the world. Maintenance costs also would be 40% lower because of a simplified design using about 30% fewer parts.

CFM International, an engine-building partnership between General Electric and France's Snecma, predicts comparable improvements for its next model, which is under development and could be ready to enter service by 2015. "It will be a big step, and we're maybe two-thirds of the way there," says Bill Clapper, executive vice-president of CFM, the market leader in narrowbody aircraft engines. CFM supplies all the engines for the Boeing 737 and about half those for Airbus' A320 line.

No engine maker has more at stake than Pratt & Whitney. Once the industry leader, it slipped to No. 3 behind GE and Rolls Royce after declining to develop an engine for the 737, the best-selling plane of all time. Now, after failing to win a spot on either the 787 or A350 programs, Pratt is stuck making engines mostly for older aircraft models, although it is part of an alliance with Rolls and two other engine makers that helps supply engines for Airbus' A320 line and its new A380 megaplane.

Back in the Game?

Most aircraft engines are sold at steep discounts, with the engine makers reaping their big money from long-term service and maintenance contracts. Unless it gets aboard the high-volume new 737 and A320 programs, most analysts say, Pratt will gradually fade out of the big commercial jet business.

To get back in the game, the company is pouring $100 million a year into research and development on a new narrowbody-aircraft engine that it says could be ready to enter service within six years. MTU Aero Engines of Germany, one of Pratt's partners in the alliance that supplies the A320, is cooperating on the research. But Rolls, another key partner, is conducting its own research separately and hasn't decided whether to team up with Pratt. GE and Snecma have already said their CFM alliance will bid for the new narrowbody programs.

For now, it looks like the engineers will have at least a few more years to refine their designs. With sales of the current 737 and A320 models so red-hot, Boeing and Airbus are happy to keep wringing profits from those planes—whose R&D costs are long since amortized.

Both companies have said they don't expect replacement models to be ready before 2015. But airlines, squeezed by high fuel costs and tougher environmental regulations, are sure to keep up the pressure for new planes. Cleaner, quieter, more efficient jet aircraft could be coming sooner than you think.

Matlack is BusinessWeek's Paris bureau chief.