pioneering new core - mtu aero engines · mtu aero engines holding ag ... pioneering new core ......

A cargo workhorse in the skies

2/2010

Customers + Partners Products + Services

Adaptive laser welding

Pioneering new coreengine technologies

MTU Aero Engines Holding AGDachauer Straße 66580995 Munich • GermanyTel. +49 89 1489-0Fax +49 89 [email protected]

Technology + Science

K3 – cool coating

A fully automated and highly efficient system: MTU has developed a new machineconcept for the precise dimensional inspection of parts and subsequent repair ofdamaged areas by laser powder cladding.

The C-17 Globemaster III transport aircrafthas been a major player in every recent hu-manitarian relief mission. It is powered byF117 engines, which have been produced byPratt & Whitney in partnership with MTUsince 1993.

2 3

Under the MTU-led NEWAC technology program 40 partners from industry andresearch have worked together for four years to improve the core engine. Theimpressive result: a reduction in CO2 emissions by six percent and in NOX emis-sions by 16 percent. Page 4

Dear Readers:

MTU Aero Engines’ products and services areamong the finest to be found in the globalmarketplace. The company excels in particu-lar in the areas of low-pressure turbines andhigh-pressure compressors, as well as repairand manufacturing processes. These corecompetencies make us a must-have partnerin the engine industry. Our success is theresult of decades of intensive research workperformed both in-house and in cooperationwith partners from industry and academe. Toremain at the top of the game, we are con-tinuing to invest in R&D. In 2010, we willspend 230 million euros, which is around tenmillion more than in the year before. For it isonly through innovation that we will be ableto maintain our position as a technology lead-er. With this approach we intend to secure thecompany’s competitiveness long-term and tohelp make air travel cleaner in the future.

Under its three-stage Claire technology pro-gram, MTU has succeeded in making a majorcontribution towards the development of thepropulsion concept of the future. It bases onthe geared turbofan (GTF), which we are build-ing in partnership with Pratt & Whitney andwhich features a high-speed low-pressureturbine. Our key areas of research are low-pressure turbines and high-pressure com-pressors. But apart from these, we are alsodedicating significant technological efforts tothe further development of the overall enginesystem, for example, by highly advanced ther-modynamic cycles with markedly improvedthermal efficiencies. In the process, we close-ly cooperate with other companies, with uni-versities and research institutes at a regional,national and European level.

Editorial

Pioneering new core engine technologies


To protect engine blades andvanes or casing componentsfrom corrosion and wear or re-pair damage MTU is using thenewly developed kinetic cold gasspraying process, which opensup entirely new possibilities.

One of the most important projects pursuedis the MTU-led European NEWAC (New AeroEngine Core Concepts) technology program.The results of the four years of intensive re-search work performed under the programwere announced just recently. The efforts todevelop new core engine concepts haveyielded an impressive combination of techni-cal innovations and environmentally soundtechnologies, and the outcome is also tangi-ble proof of how successful joint research canbe. Such programs, sponsored by the Euro-pean Commission, are vital to all industryplayers in Europe, because they provide aplatform for blazing new trails in engine tech-nology.

The above examples go to show that MTU iscontinuously investing in novel products andengine services. Thus, we make sure that thecompany remains a driver of innovation anda valued and reliable partner in the engineindustry.

Sincerely yours,

Ihr

Dr. Rainer MartensMember of the Board of Management, Chief Operating Officer

K3—cool coating

A cargo workhorse in the skies

Pioneering new core engine technologiesInterview with Airbus: The right technologies at the right time

4 – 9

10 – 11

The Chancellor’s new jetlinerA cargo workhorse in the skies

12 – 1516 – 19

Power from algaeK3—cool coating

20 – 2526 – 29

Adaptive laser weldingThe final touchesMAX1—a great leap forward

Make it clean and keep it clean

30 – 33 34 – 3738 – 39

40 – 43

44 – 4747

In Brief

Masthead

Contents

Cover Story

Customers + Partners

Technology + Science

Products + Services

Report

Page 16

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54 Cover Story

Pioneering new coreengine technologies

The Advisory Council for Aeronautics Re-search in Europe (ACARE) wants the aviationindustry to explore radically new technolo-gies as it works to meet environmental stan-dards for the next generations of aircraft. Aglance at the figures shows that the industrywill need to halve fuel consumption, CO2

emissions and noise levels by 2020 relativeto year-2000 aircraft, while also slashingemissions of oxides of nitrogen by 80 per-cent. Regarding noise and NOX emissionsfuture engines will need to contribute thelion’s share and in terms of fuel consumptionsome 20 percent of these improvements. Allthis obviously comes as no surprise to theengine manufacturers, who have spent yearsploughing resources into research programssuch as EEFAE, VITAL and DREAM with the

By Denis Dilba

Four years of research conducted as part of the New Aero Engine Core Concepts technology program—NEWACfor short—have produced results that once again illustrate just how much can be achieved when industry andresearch partners work together on a European level. With active systems, heat management and advancedcombustors, the newly developed core engine concepts feature an impressive mix of technical innovations andenvironmentally sound technologies.

goal of finding technological solutions toachieve the drastic cuts in consumption andemissions that are required over today’s en-gines.

The recent presentation on the five-yearNEWAC project, which is co-funded by theEuropean Commission under the Sixth Frame-work Programme for Research and Technol-ogy Development, provided the perfectopportunity to judge how far manufacturershave already come. Under the leadership ofMTU Aero Engines, 40 partners were work-ing towards cutting CO2 emissions by six per-cent and NOX emissions by 16 percent bymaking improvements to the core engine.The NEWAC project is split into five key areasof research—four core engine concepts plus

a sub-project to investigate lean combustionprocesses—and testing has already been suc-cessfully completed in some areas.

The greatest potential for cutting fuel con-sumption and thus reducing CO2 emissionslies in the combined use of heat exchangers(recuperators) and intercoolers in the engine.“The idea here is that the recuperator ele-ments use the residual heat from the ex-haust gas stream to pre-heat the air enteringthe combustor,” says Stefan Donnerhack,technical expert at MTU Aero Engines inMunich and head of the Intercooled Recu-perative Aero-Engine (IRA) research team.The approach makes it possible to achievethe same turbine entry temperature as in aconventional engine, but with less fuel.

Active compressor on MTU’s rig 260.

76 Cover Story

NEWAC partner Turbomeca, a French manu-facturer of engines for aircraft and helicop-ters and a specialist in the field of radialcompressors, has managed to reduce theweight of the new compressor more than tenpercent while boosting efficiency by approx-imately one percent. Donnerhack is confidentthat improvements to the airflow through therecuperator will help reduce IRA fuel con-sumption by a further two percentage pointsin addition to the 16 percent already a-chieved under Clean. He also notes that theoverall IRA engine system will be around onepercent lighter. Final rig tests are scheduledto take place over the next few months.

Rolls-Royce researcher Nick Baker, whoheads up the Intercooled Core (IC) project ofNEWAC, has developed an intercooler thatcould also be used in a modified form in theIRA. “The main advantage of the IntercooledCore concept is that it is not quite as com-plex as the IRA,” says Baker. Nonetheless,the task of developing the IC is far from sim-ple. The intercooler needs to be ultra-com-pact and as lightweight as possible, which iswhat prompted Baker and his NEWAC part-ners to use a rapid prototyping technique toproduce an intercooler in titanium. Its corru-gated sheet structure has already demon-strated impressive performance in initial tri-als, according to Baker. The job to be donenow is to make it even smaller.

Baker’s project team has also been workingon the design of the flow ducts that feed airto the intercooler modules and then back tothe high-pressure compressor. Minimizing thepressure losses in this area has been chal-lenging, Baker explains. Integrating the inter-cooler has also required the team to optimizethe compressors and make the engine casingmore rigid. Although efforts are still ongoingto meet the goal of four percent reduced fuelconsumption relative to a conventional en-gine, Baker says: “NEWAC is already the mostsuccessful EU project I have ever worked on.”

The Rolls-Royce expert is confident that thetargets will be met within a year or so. “Andwe will keep working on these new technolo-gies even after NEWAC comes to an end,” headds. The first technologies developed underNEWAC are likely to appear in productionengines from 2020 at the earliest. “But forengine manufacturers like us that feels likeno time at all,” states Wolfgang Sturm, whoworks at MTU and heads up research intothe Active Core concept, emphasizing the

haust gas stream and the development of anew radial compressor.” There were two goodreasons for a new radial compressor, addsthe MTU expert: It is well suited for an enginewith a comparatively low overall pressureratio of between 20:1 and 25:1 in the IRA

cycle, and it also discharges the air radiallyoutward, as its name suggests, which is pre-cisely where it needs to go anyway in orderto be routed past the combustor and reachthe recuperator.

Donnerhack says their previous work underthe Clean project had already confirmed theywere on the right track with their chosen con-cept of a profiled-tube recuperator: “Our workon the IRA focuses on the optimum arrange-ment of the recuperator modules in the ex-

importance of this research work. Sturm ex-plains that one of the key elements of hisactive core engine is a smart compressorthat adapts itself to varying operating condi-tions. To pull off this impressive feat of engi-neering, his team developed an active clear-ance control system. The sensors in this sys-tem continuously monitor the clearance anduse actuators to adjust the casing so that thecompressor is constantly working at optimumefficiency.

The team also developed what is known as atip injection system. “That’s where we addi-Intercooled engine intercase prototypes.

Setup for testing of the active clearance control system.

Blade profile aspiration being tested at EPFL (ÉcolePolytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne).

Abrasive coatings were tested on a Sulzer test facility. Snecma compressor rig.

Advanced compressor rotor.

98 Cover Story

For interesting multimedia services associated with this article, go towww.mtu.de/210NEWAC

For additional information, contactStephan Servaty+49 89 1489-4261

If the cooling air is colder than in today’s en-gines, significantly less air is needed for theremaining cooling tasks in the engine, suchas turbine blade cooling. “And that booststhe engine’s efficiency,” says Sturm. But

everything is a question of balance. If the dif-ference in temperature between the coolingair and the hot gas in the turbine becomestoo great, the turbine’s service life will dropmarkedly. Sturm and his NEWAC colleaguestherefore had to design a system to activelycontrol the temperature of the cooling air.

The result was a 1.5 percent drop in fuel con-sumption and 0.5 percent increase in theefficiency of the high-pressure turbine withenhanced cooling. The active core enginenow requires some 20 percent less coolingair overall than before, says Sturm, and thetechnologies used in the smart high-pressurecompressor have improved its efficiency bytwo percent. “We have only just finished ourrig tests and we still have to analyze and as-sess all the data,” the MTU expert adds, “butit is already clear that these technologiesoffer great potential for the future.” Sturmand his team are obviously keen to continuepursuing development work in this area, ide-

ally in a follow-up project of a similar kind sothat they can continue to reap the benefits ofthe excellent collaboration with their part-ners—one of the key factors that has madetheir work so successful.

Hanna Reiss of French engine manufacturerSnecma, who heads up research into theFlow Controlled Core (FCC) concept, too, hasnothing but praise for the positive workingatmosphere in NEWAC. Her project team hasdeveloped and tested four different approa-ches to improve the efficiency of the high-pressure compressor. According to Reiss, thenew engines can achieve their full potentialonly if the compressor design is optimizedfor high pressure ratios. The FCC approachinvolves local control of the airflow in thehigh-pressure compressor. This required mul-tistage 3D CFD (Computational Fluid Dyna-mics) optimization combined with advancedflow control technologies.

The team focused in particular on the extrac-tion of air from the high-pressure compressorand on reducing performance losses causedby flow separation. Reiss explains that aspi-ration is being investigated both on casingwalls and directly on the blade profilesthrough tiny ducts in the blades. The firstmethod has already been successfully testedin NEWAC in a new, fully-assembled high-pressure compressor, while preliminary test-ing of the second method has shown theconcept to be very promising, according toReiss. Testing has also been carried out onoptimized, more durable abradable linings inthe high-pressure compressor casing.

Overall, Reiss and her team have managed toboost the efficiency of the high-pressurecompressor by 1.9 percent and increase thesurge margin by 7.5 percent. “We are de-lighted with the results, but we still need tofind a way of making the systems simplerand lighter,” says the Snecma manager—hence the decision to keep working on thisproject even after NEWAC comes to an end.

Much of the responsibility for NEWAC meet-ing the stipulated target of a 16 percent re-duction in oxides of nitrogen emissions lieswith Salvatore Colantuoni of Italian enginemanufacturer Avio, who heads up researchwork in the field of combustors. The newcombustor technologies developed under hisleadership focus on lean combustion. In con-trast to conventional combustion, the newtechnologies feature an excess of air in the

combustor rather than fuel. “That is how wereduce the flame temperature and preventthe increased formation of oxides of nitro-gen,” Colantuoni explains.

tionally blow air from the outside into the for-ward compressor stages,” says Sturm, ex-plaining that this helps improve stability atpart load conditions. The third key aspect ofthe active core engine is cooling air cooling.

Two MTU employees are fitting the instrumentation for the experimental compressor. Full-annular combustor rig setup for low-pressure test at Avio.

View of the combustor flame at ignition.

MTU’s compressor test facility is extremely powerful.

However, the extent to which lean combus-tion technology can be applied to differentengine sizes and overall pressure ratios isvery limited, which is why Colantuoni’s teamdecided to work on three different conceptsin parallel: Lean Direct Injection (LDI), LeanPremixed Prevaporized (LPP) and PartiallyEvaporated and Rapid Mixing (PERM). “LPP iswell suited for the comparatively low overallpressure ratios of intercooled recuperatedengines,” says the combustion expert. PERMis suitable for average pressure ratios, whileLDI development is primarily aimed at theintercooled core engine, which has the high-est pressures. All three lean combustionconcepts were tested on demonstrators andproduced very good results in terms of

reducing NOX emissions, according to Colan-tuoni.

The next steps are to optimize the weightand reduce the complexity of the system, aprocess that will require the team to take aneven closer look at the interaction betweenthe new combustors and the componentsclosest to them—the high-pressure compres-sor and the high-pressure turbine, saysColantuoni, adding: “The NEWAC develop-ments have brought us a lot closer to reach-ing the ambitious ACARE goals.”

“One of the best things to come out ofNEWAC is the wide selection of innovativetechnologies that we have developed, some-thing that enables us to make immediateimprovements as well as to take some impor-tant long-term steps towards eco-efficientflight,” says Jörg Sieber, Chief Engineer of theNEWAC technology program.

“We have achieved our goals,” enthusesStephan Servaty, Senior Manager, TechnologyPrograms at MTU and NEWAC coordinator.The money spent by the EU and the programpartners is an investment that pays divi-dends: “It makes a major contribution to-wards a cleaner environment, and at thesame time helps Europe’s engine industry toremain competitive in the global market-place.”

1110 Cover Story

The right technologies at the right time

Sébastien Rémy, VP, Head of CoC Powerplant Airbus S.A.S.

Airbus Concept Plane.

Mr. Rémy, the European Commission has formany years sponsored programs to developnew technologies for engines of the future, acurrent example being NEWAC. To what extentare airframers involved in such programs?

Airbus and engine manufacturers have a longexperience of collaborative work within E.U.funded frame which has been boosted in thelate 90’/early 2000’ within the EEFAE &Silencer projects, continued with NEWAC andnow developed with the Clean Sky Programs(SAGE, SFWA). The Airbus contribution to E.U.engine led programs always focused on theevaluation of engine technologies potentialat aircraft level through the definition of ge-neric aircraft platforms suited to the variousengine options investigated. Final objectivefor both engine manufacturers and Airbus isto get capability to down-select, in a bal-anced aircraft level way, the most promisingengine technologies for further develop-ments.

All aircraft manufacturers are presently mull-ing over launching a next-generation passen-ger aircraft to enter service in 10 to 12 yearsat the earliest. In what order of magnitude arethe expected improvements over today’s air-craft in terms of consumption, emissions andlife-cycle costs?

Airbus is always assessing all options fromcontinuous improvement of the current prod-uct, with technologies insertion at airframe &engine level, up to the development of newairframe combined with new propulsion sys-tem. What drives at the end the selection ofthe preferred option is the critical mass oftechnological improvement with the relatedeconomical benefits for both OEM and oper-

ators. Expected improvements over the nextcouple of decades can easily range from 10 to35 percent in term of fuel consumption de-pending of actual product entry into servicehorizon.

Which technical measures will be taken tomake sure these targets are met?

A systematic approach (Technology Readi-ness Level) is in place at Airbus to developand down-select the most promising technol-ogy options with the ambition to consolidatethe performance potential while reducing thedevelopment risk. This step by step approachin maturing technologies is well illustrated byanumber of collaborative E.U. funded projectscovering the full spectrum from academicwork, through scale model tests (typicallyWind Tunnel Tests) up to full scale demon-stration (engine ground test or engine FlyingTest Bed). This systematic down-selectionapproach is largely shared between Airbusand engine manufacturers and has allowedthe introduction of the right technologies atthe right time over the past decades; besttechnologies are the ones which find theirroute to the market.

Does the industry think about using entirelynew materials that are presently in the devel-opment stage or not even that?

Airbus keeps on developing materials, suchas CFRP, and investigating new materialswhich will contribute to aircraft weight re-duction, hence reduced aircraft emissions.Our vision (and therefore criteria for success)is however broader, encompassing simplicityin operation, respecting landscape and biodi-versity, and ecoefficiency (including greenmanufacturing and recycling). Some of ourobjectives for 2020 are, relative to 2006, toreduce energy consumption by 30 percent,CO2 emissions by 50 percent, water consump-tion by 50 percent, water discharge by 80percent, and waste production by 50 percent.For instance, significant investment has beenmade to eliminate chromates in the paintingprocess. And water used for surface treat-ment can be limited by recycling it, by reduc-ing evaporation thanks to lower bath temper-atures and by minimising rinse levels as faras possible. In addition, current practices donot allow recovering more than, at best, 60percent (in weight) of aircraft materials. Thissituation is no longer acceptable. Not only itis potentially environmentally damagingthrough the release of hazardous materials

and soil pollution, but it also presents safetyrisks through the uncontrolled reuse of sec-ond hand spare parts. Last but not least, it isuneconomical as only a small part of the ma-terials is recycled. The PAMELA LIFE project,which supplied its final reports in January2008, demonstrated that up to 85 percent ofan aircraft’s components can be easily recy-cled, reused or recovered, with 70 percentreuse and recovery. The experience gained indismantling and recycling can then be fedback into the Airbus life cycle (reverse engi-neering, manufacturing, supply chain, rawmaterial etc.), helping to make future aircrafteven easier to recycle.

Which role do the engines play in the achieve-ment of the ambitious targets?

Future engine technologies are among themost promising lever arms to improve avia-tion efficiency and environmental friendli-ness. However, those technologies will onlydeliver their full promise in case of a smartintegration to the airframe. This deserves thecooperation of both actors from the veryearly stage of R&T, paving the way to theoptimum airframe/engine technology pack-age and application. This combined engine/airframe technologies effort is expected todeliver as much as 40 percent of fuel con-sumption which together with the 10 to 15percent further reduction expected fromATM improvements will lead to the 50 per-cent fuel reduction ACARE target vs to cur-rent product in operation.

Today’s engines power the aircraft while atthe same time ensuring the energy supply tothe aircraft. Do you think this will also holdtrue for future engines or will there be sepa-rate systems?

Engines are to date and will remain within thenext decade the most efficient and reliableenergy source on board the aircraft. The ob-jective of the airframer is to optimize the levelof power-off take which is required from theengine for non thrust related needs. Someevolution can be foreseen first in the groundphase where alternative systems will com-plement or take-over from engine, to supplyenergy to the aircraft for various functions(air conditioning…) including taxi phase thatcould be assisted with independent electricalengine fitted on landing gear.

What do you think about the use of the muchdiscussed fuel cell on aircraft?

Fuel cells can produce electricity in a moreefficient way than combustion engines. Theyalso offer the perspective to further reduceaviation emissions footprint. Airbus, DLR andMichelin have been first, in February 2008,to fly a commercial airplane with a fuel cellpowering the electric motor pump for the air-craft’s back-up hydraulic circuit, controllingthe spoilers, ailerons and elevator actuator.Research activities related to fuel cells arehowever at an early stage. Dramatic progressin fuel cell system power density (ratio ofpower produced per unit weight) is still need-ed to allow fuel cells to progressively findtheir way into commercial aircraft.

For additional information, contactOdilo Mühling+49 89 1489-2698

For further information on this article, go towww.mtu.de/210Airbus

Intensive research is undertaken in the engine industry to make tomorrow’s aircraft fuel-thriftier, cleaner and quieter. The aircraft manufacturers, too, are working ceaselessly todevelop new technologies. To learn more about the joint efforts we asked Sébastien Rémy,Vice President, Head of CoC Powerplant Airbus S.A.S. a few questions.

12 13Customers + Partners

The Chancellor’s new jetliner

By Patrick Hoeveler

You have probably seen them often on TV, albeit only in the background: The aircraft oper-ated by the Special Air Mission Wing of the German Federal Ministry of Defense frequentlyform part of the decor when the German Chancellor, the German President or other high-ranking government officials go on official travel. Two new A319s, procured as part of thefirst stage of an extensive fleet modernization program, will significantly improve the air forceunit’s mission capabilities. They are each powered by two IAE International Aero EnginesV2500 engines, in which MTU has a stake.

The famous “red phone” featured in numer-ous fictional movies does actually exist onboard the two brand-new Airbus A319s—only it is black, not red. But otherwise theinterior of the jets, with their discrete ivoryand beige paneling and furnishings, is any-thing but spectacular, and fully in keepingwith the missions for which they weredesigned: transporting VIP passengers onofficial government business. This is one ofthe main duties of the Special Air MissionWing, an air force unit stationed at Wahn air-base near Cologne, which is also responsi-ble for military transportation and logisticssupport when German troops are postedabroad.

The A319 is the first in a new generation ofGerman-government VIP aircraft that will begradually introduced as part of a modern-ization program to replace the present agingfleet of Airbus A310s and Canadair CL-601Challengers, which have been in service forover 20 years. The first of the two A319Airbus Corporate Jetliners (ACJ), intendedfor medium-haul flights, was fitted out byLufthansa Technik and handed over to theMinistry of Defense at the end of March. TheA319 ACJ’s special VIP cabin was the resultof nine months’ work at the company’sHamburg site. The new aircraft will be joinedtowards the end of this year by two AirbusA340-300s for long-haul flights. The SpecialAir Mission Wing’s remaining Challengerswill be replaced in 2011 by four BombardierGlobal 5000 jets.

The first of the three new aircraft types tojoin the fleet has delighted crew and pas-sengers alike. “The A319 has significantlyimproved the Special Air Mission Wing’s ca-pabilities,” says Lieutenant Colonel SaschaKählert, Captain of the 2nd Squadron. “Mostimportantly, it enables us to transport up to44 people—delegations and crew—, whereaswith the Challenger we were limited to 16.”With auxiliary tanks in the cargo bay, the air-craft’s range between fueling stops has alsobeen considerably increased. As Kählertsays, “We can easily fly non-stop from Berlin-Tegel to Washington D.C. or even Beijing.”

14 15Customers + Partners

First Sergeant Maik Kolditz explains the dif-ferences between the VIP version of theAirbus A319 and the regular versions flownby commercial airlines such as Lufthansa:“The main modifications relate to the cabinlayout and the on board security systems,”says the trained A319 technician. The airforce models have a personal office in theforward section, equipped with two execu-tive seats and a convertible sofa bed. Theunit has its own private shower and bath-room. Immediately adjoining these VIP quar-ters is a conference area with eight seats,equipped with a full range of multimedia sys-tems including TV and Internet access. State-of-the-art, secure communications equip-ment is used throughout. The next compart-ment comprises 32 seats in a conventionallayout. Behind this section, on the right-handside of the aircraft, there is a resting area forthe crew. This is necessary because the cock-pit team on long-haul flights consists of threeinstead of two persons, and they are re-quired to remain on duty for up to 18 hours,

rather than 14 on shorter flights. Othermembers of crew on normal flights includebetween two and four flight attendants, abaggage-handling manager, and two techni-cians to deal with any problems that mightoccur when the aircraft has to land onremote airstrips. This is also the reason whythe aircraft is equipped with its own deploy-able air stair.

The Airbus is also intended for use on med-ical evacuation (MedEvac) missions to trans-port patients requiring intensive care, inwhich case it carries additional crew mem-bers on board: two physicians, one medicaltechnician, and usually an anesthetist. “Likeall other aircraft flown by the Special AirMission Wing, the A319 can be reconfiguredfor MedEvac missions. We always have oneA310 and either a Challenger or an A319 onstandby. This level of mission readiness isunequalled anywhere in the world,” saysMaster Sergeant Guido Rademacher, whoserves as a medical flight assistant on the

A319. It only takes a few hours to remove theseats from a portion of the passenger cabinand install intensive care units for twopatients. In this configuration, the aircraft ismostly used for repatriating injured or criti-cally ill German soldiers and civilians, butalso in the context of international humani-tarian aid missions in the event of naturaldisasters.

The Airbus plant at Finkenwerder nearHamburg is responsible for the final assem-bly of the A319s. Altogether, the Germanworkshare is considerably higher than in pre-vious governmental aircraft. The same holdstrue for the engine, the International AeroEngines (IAE) V2500. “We are obviously verypleased that the German government hasplaced its trust in an engine that is built withsignificant MTU input,” says Dr. AntonBinder, Senior Vice President, CommercialPrograms at MTU Aero Engines in Munich. Asa member of the IAE consortium, the compa-ny supplies the low-pressure turbine and

holds an 11-percent share in the program,the other shareholders being Pratt & Whitney,Rolls-Royce and Japanese Aero EngineCorporation. Half of all V2500 engines areassembled at the German Rolls-Royce plantin Dahlewitz near Berlin.

“It was no doubt important for reasons ofprestige to have a “German” engine on thewing of the German governmental aircraft,”says Leo Müllenholz, Director, IAE Programsat MTU. “But the IAE engine was neverthe-less selected through a normal competitivebidding process, in which the other candi-date was the CFM56. One of the factors thattipped the scales in favor of the V2500 wasits lower fuel consumption.“ The V2500 is aperennial bestseller, with over 4,000 enginesdelivered worldwide and more than 2,000 onorder.

The new A319 has been flying in a livery that represents the national colors of Germany since late March.

The German Chancellor’s new Airbus is powered by V2500 engines.

Almost everybody knows “Air Force One”as the name of the U.S. President’s per-sonal aircraft. In fact, it is the air trafficcontrol call sign used for any U.S. AirForce aircraft carrying the President ofthe United States aboard. At present,Barack Obama travels on one of twoBoeing VC-25As; the aircraft is a highlycustomized military version of the 747-200B, which entered into service in 1990.The aircraft is capable of being refueled inflight, and is equipped with state-of-the-art, secure communication systems thatallow the jumbo jet to function as an air-borne command and control center in theevent of a national emergency.

The spacious cabin has an interior floorspace of over 370 square meters. FourGeneral Electric CF6-80C2B1 engines pro-vide the power for the VC-25A, each witha thrust of 252.4 kilonewtons. Here too,MTU contributes some of the compo-nents. “We manufacture the rotor bladesand stator vanes for stages 1 and 2 andthe disk for the second stage of the high-

pressure turbine,” says Josef Moosheimer,GEnx Program Team Leader at MTU.

The German engine manufacturer stands agood chance of contributing its expertise tothe next generation of Air Force One. Amongthe possible candidates to replace the VC-25A

is the Boeing 747-8, which is powered ex-clusively by GE Aviation’s GEnx engine.Says Moosheimer: “In this case, MTUwould be responsible for supplying theturbine center frame.”

Air Force One—the XXL presidential aircraft

For further information on this article, go towww.mtu.de/210V2500

For additional information, contactLeo Müllenholz+49 89 1489-3173

Two Boeing 747s are on standby around the clock for the U.S. president.

A cargo workhorse inthe skies

By Andreas vom Bruch

16 17

In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, the U.S. Air Force flew non-stop humanitarian relief missions to provide theaffected population with food and medical supplies. Initially, its C -17 Globemaster aircraft could only airdrop theirlife-saving cargo by parachute. In all, the airlifters completed more than 1,800 flights to the devastated island, car-rying a total of 10,000 metric tons of aid and almost 14,000 passengers.

The C-17 Globemaster III transport aircraftis a real allrounder and has been a majorplayer in every recent humanitarian reliefmission. Aircraft of this type flew intoPakistan’s earthquake region, providedassistance in the wake of the Asian tsunami,and are currently in active service inAfghanistan. They are operated by a numberof different nations. The C-17 was originallydesigned for demanding military missions;its huge cargo bay can accommodate almostany item of combat equipment, includingtanks, helicopters and command vehicles.26 meters in length, 5.5 meters wide andfour meters high, it can hold 78 metric tonsof freight and is accessed via a loading rampand door at the rear of the aircraft.

Customers + Partners

This giant of the skies, which is 53 meterslong and has a wingspan of 50 meters, ispowered by F117 engines. “Thanks to itsfour powerful engines, each of which pro-duces 185.5 kilonewtons of thrust, the C -17is capable of operating to and from tempo-rary airfields with extremely short andunprepared runways. It can also taxi back-wards and turn on a dime,” says ManfredVögele, Director, Pratt & Whitney programsat MTU Aero Engines. According to Vögele,the engine, which has been produced jointlyby Pratt & Whitney and MTU since 1993, hasbuilt a reputation as a “solid performer”. Italso burns significantly less fuel than com-parable engines, not least because it is rela-tively lightweight. Vögele continues: “The

F117 engine builds on the reliability andexperience of the commercial version, thePW2040, which powers the Boeing 757. Butit is considerably more robust, featuringmore durable accessories, for example. Onemajor difference lies in its powerful thrustreversers, which can back a fully-loaded air-craft up a two-degree slope.”

For Germany’s leading engine manufacturer,the PW2000 is of huge strategic importance.Vögele explains: “This engine incorporatesthe first commercial low-pressure turbinedeveloped by MTU. Today, the company is aworld leader in this field.” The Munich-basedcompany has been developing and producingcomponents for the PW2000 as a partner ofPratt & Whitney since 1979. Initially, MTUheld an 11-percent share in the program anddeveloped and produced the low-pressureturbine and turbine exhaust casing. In 1992,the company’s share was upped to 21 per-cent to include parts of the high-pressureturbine as well. At the time, no one couldhave foreseen that the program would proveso enduringly successful and ultimately be-come one of MTU’s key drivers of revenueand earnings.

The C-17 Globemaster, too, proved a best-seller and has become a huge export suc-cess. The U.S. Air Force currently operates afleet of 200 of these airlifters, the largest inthe world. It took delivery of its first aircraftin 1993 from McDonnell Douglas, which wastaken over by Boeing in 1997. Demand con-

tinued to rise and the USAF plans to increaseits C-17 fleet to 223 units have been built.The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force alsohighly values the C-17 for its range and ver-satility. It can fly in and out of combat zonesvery quickly and, fully-loaded, can travel adistance of 4,450 kilometers without refuel-ing. If refueled in mid-air, it can fly non-stopto any crisis spot in the world. The aircraft isrenowned for its superb reliability, low main-tenance requirements and fuel efficiency. Inlight of its impressive capability profile, theU.S. Air Force still considers it the newestand most flexible cargo aircraft in the world.

Currently, the United Kingdom operates sixof these aircraft, but this figure will rise toseven by the end of the year. Boeing alsodelivered four copies each to the RoyalAustralian Air Force and the Canadian ForcesAir Command. In 2006, a number of NATOmember states announced their intention toprocure three C-17s within the Strategic Air-lift Capability initiative. These aircraft arenow flying with mixed crews from theNetherlands, Norway, Sweden, the U.S. andLithuania. Qatar and the United Arab

1918 Customers + Partners

PW2000 maintenance in Langenhagen

Assembly of a PW2000.For further information on this article, go towww.mtu.de/210Globemaster

For additional information, contactManfred Vögele+49 89 1489-3229

A Pratt & Whitney PW2000 in the development test cell of MTU.

MTU generates a significant amount ofadditional revenue through the mainte-nance of the commercial PW2000 engine,from which the F117 powering the C-17has been derived. This work is carriedout at MTU Maintenance Hannover inLangenhagen. According to Customer Pro-gram Manager Thomas von Kaweczynski,more than 400 maintenance orders forcomplete engines have been handledsince 1989, and some 200 orders for en-gine modules. This year alone, Kaweczyn-ski is expecting as many as 40 engineshop visits.

Customers of the Langenhagen-based fa-cility are airlines which operate Boeing757s with PW2000 engines on the wings,among them Shanghai Airlines, VIMAirlines, Finnair and also UPS, the parceldelivery service. “In the early years, theengines had to be overhauled after10,000 flying hours at the latest. Buttoday’s reduced temperature configura-

Emirates also rate the C-17’s capabilitieshighly: Qatar has painted the military trans-port in commercial livery and makes it avail-able to members of the country’s royal fami-ly and government officials. Now India is alsoshowing strong interest and plans to procureten aircraft.

Boeing has delivered a total of 219 Globe-masters to customers all over the world. ThisApril, the American aircraft manufacturertook delivery of the 1000th F117 engine; itwas ceremonially handed over to the U.S. AirForce in May. From 2011, Boeing intends todownscale C-17 production to around tenaircraft a year. Production will continue atthe company’s Long Beach facility inCalifornia until 2012 at least. And perhapseven longer, since the C-17 Globemaster isstill second to none.

tion (RTC) engines can easily fly more than15,000 hours between overhauls,” saysKaweczynski. This improvement is owed totechnical modifications to the low-pressurecompressor and low-pressure turbine incor-porated to increase the air mass flow in the

Toussaint L’Ouverture International Airport in Port-au-Prince: After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in January 2010 the C-17 Globemaster evacuated victims from thedisaster zone.

high-pressure compressor and high-pressure turbine, which allows the com-bustion chamber and the high-pressureturbine to operate at a significantly lowertemperature. As a result, wear is re-duced and less maintenance is needed.

Power from algaeIf we are to believe many of the major airlines, it is only a matter of time before biofuels are widelyused in air transport. Test flights have already proved that there is a number of viable alternatives tokerosene, among them ethanol, synthetic kerosene from plants, and hydrogen. But it remains to beseen which particular raw material—and indeed which process—will ultimately prevail and be used tomanufacture non-fossil fuels.

By Achim Figgen

The activities pursued in this field are multi-faceted and span the globe. In early May thisyear, airlines, industry associations and anumber of organizations in Brazil joined toform the “Aliança Brasileira para Biocom-

bustíveis de Aviaçaõ” (ABRABA). Not longafter, Boeing launched an initiative to coop-erate with Chinese companies to establishan aviation biofuels industry in China. And atroughly the same time, Lufthansa announcedits plans to start using biofuels for scheduledcommercial flights in the near future. Thisproject will be pursued under the FutureAircraft Research (FAIR) program, in whichMTU Aero Engines will be responsible foranalyzing data and assessing the engines oncompletion of the tests. Lufthansa is hopingthat testing of alternatives to kerosene over

2120 Technology + Science

a longer period of time will provide reliabledata regarding the feasibility of using suchfuels on scheduled services.

Other airlines, such as Continental and KLM,and even the U.S. Air Force, are likewise ex-ploring various options and have already car-ried out test flights using a blend of conven-tional kerosene and fuels derived either frombiological feedstock or natural gas. All theseefforts go to show that biofuels are a hottopic, not only because crude oil resourcesare limited; demands for lower CO2 emis-sions and greater sustainability overall areforcing the aviation industry to act.

The fact that it is technically possible to runaircraft on synthetic fuels, that is fuels notobtained by refining crude oil, has been suc-cessfully demonstrated in numerous experi-ments, among them the demonstrationflights made by EADS and Diamond Aircraft atthis year’s ILA Berlin Air Show using a DA42aircraft. For these flights, one of the smalljet’s two AE300 diesel engines was poweredexclusively by an algae-based biofuel.

Arizona State University scientists are exploring algaeand other feedstocks as potential renewable sourcesfor the production of biofuels.

2322 Technology + Science

The most important prerequisite for thewidespread use of synthetic fuels in aviationis that they should be as similar to keroseneas possible in terms of physical properties,

A major attraction at ILA 2010 Berlin Air Show: the daily demonstration flights of a Diamond Aircraft DA42 New Generation powered solely by a biofuel obtained from algae.

Kerosene, chemically speaking a mix-ture of several combustible liquid hy-drocarbon compounds, is a middle dis-tillate fuel derived from petroleum. De-pending on the specific type, it freezesat temperatures between -60°C and-40°C and boils above 175°C. The twomain types currently used in commer-cial aviation are Jet A1 (U.S.) and Jet A(rest of the world); the military gener-ally use the variant JP8. There areadditional specifications for flights inparticularly cold regions of the world(Jet B and JP4, respectively).

Kerosene, the fuelof today

such as freezing and boiling points, viscosityand energy density. In other words, theyshould behave just like kerosene. It mustalso be possible to mix them with standard

jet fuel in any ratio, to obviate the need forseparate fuel depots at airports, for in-stance. Provided these essentials are met,Dr. Jörg Sieber from MTU’s innovation man-

agement department believes that, from theengine manufacturers’ perspective, nothingstands in the way of using biofuels. “Officialapproval has already been granted for sched-uled flights with fuel mixtures containing upto 50 percent synthetic kerosene alongsidekerosene derived from crude oil. Basically,aero engines may well be able to run on awide range of alternative fuels.” What is morecritical than the engine is the substantial air-port infrastructure and aircraft design issuesthese fuels present.

The idea of substituting fuels derived fromcrude oil with fuels obtained from alternativesource materials is by no means a 21st cen-tury invention. During World War II, Germanymanufactured liquid fuel from the country’sabundant reserves of coal. And 40 or so yearsago, when oil was scarce in South Africaowing to the international embargo imposedbecause of its policy of apartheid, the coun-try turned to large-scale coal liquefaction toproduce petrochemical fuels. This processwas (and indeed still is) used to produce notonly gasoline and diesel, but kerosene, too.

Coal-to-liquid (CTL) or gas-to-liquid (GTL)fuels could undoubtedly help alleviate de-pendence on crude oil and make sure that acertain security of supply is maintained forfuture generations. However, from the pointof view of sustainability, these solutions areanything but optimal, not least because theFischer-Tropsch (FT) synthesis used for the

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Past DiscoveryFuture DiscoveryProduction

The growing gap regular conventional oilASPO The Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas

Revisions backdated.Rounded with 3yr moving average.

24 25Technology + Science

Alternative fuels for the future

For additional information, contactDr. Jörg Sieber+49 89 1489-2513

For further information on this article, go towww.mtu.de/210Biofuels

The oily seeds of the Jatropha shrub, too, are a suitable feedstock for high-quality biofuel.

An integrated algal biorefinery is being set up in New Mexico, which will produce algae-based fuel for commercial purposes. By 2020, it should be possible to mix kerosene with up to ten percent biofuels. Lufthansa plans to start long-term testing of such fuels in scheduled revenue services within the next two years.

purpose, which was developed in Germany asearly as in 1925, is relatively energy intensive.By contrast, the situation looks a lot morepromising if a renewable resource is usedinstead of coal or gas (biomass to liquids, orBTL). Why? Because the carbon dioxide thatis produced in an engine during combustionhas previously been taken out of the atmos-phere by the plants used to make the fuel.Suitable materials include wood or woodwastes, corn, straw or algae, to name but afew.

Alternatively, it is possible to produce oilfrom certain types of algae that can be con-verted by a catalytic reaction with hydrogeninto a hydrocarbon compound that is similarto kerosene: hydrogenated vegetable oil(HVO). This process uses less energy thanthe FT synthesis. HVOs can also be producedfrom plants such as oil palms, jatropha orcamelina. However, not all the resulting oilsexhibit the carbon chain length range that istypical of kerosene; palm oil, for example,would be more appropriate as a substitutefor diesel.

The various approaches show that there ismore than one way to produce a synthetic

fuel from renewable resources. Which of theoptions considered will ultimately be adopt-ed depends to a large extent on which rawmaterial can be made available in sufficientquantities. Careful consideration must alsobe given to the selection of crops and culti-vation areas to make sure biofuel productiondoes not divert food away from the human oranimal food chain. The ideal solution wouldbe a non-edible plant that would thrive in justabout any soil conditions and climate.

Bauhaus Luftfahrt, a Munich-based thinktank that was established in 2005 by EADS,Liebherr-Aerospace and MTU Aero Enginesin conjunction with the Bavarian Ministry ofEconomic Affairs, is currently looking intothe crucial question of exactly how much bio-mass can theoretically be produced if strictsustainability criteria are applied, and is at-tempting to carry out a comparative assess-ment of the available options. Chief Tech-nical Officer Prof. Mirko Hornung does notthink there will be one single solution: “At theend of the day,” he says, “a number of optionswill most probably be pursued in parallel.”

It is conceivable that in the not-so-distantfuture, kerosene may be derived not only

For some time now, airlines, airframersand engine manufacturers, and researchinstitutes have all been looking for alter-native fuels that might be suitable for usein aviation. In Brazil, Embraer’s Ipanemaaircraft, which is employed in agriculturalpest control, boasts a piston engine thatdoes not run on aviation gasoline, but onethanol. However, the energy density ofthis alcohol is significantly lower than thatof kerosene or gasoline, so the aircraft’s

range is rather limited. Biodiesel suffers fromthe same problem and is, furthermore,unsuitable for use in commercial airlinersbecause of its relatively high freezing point.

Hydrogen is not really a viable alternativeeither, at least not in the medium term,despite the fact that a number of test flightshave already taken place, including some bya modified Tupolev Tu-154. Firstly, because ittakes a relatively large amount of energy to

produce hydrogen, and secondly, be-cause any aircraft using it would have toundergo major modifications. Because ofits low energy density hydrogen wouldhave to be liquefied, and large-volumeand well-insulated tanks would be need-ed. That said, it seems a good idea tobegin using hydrogen in fuel cells whichcould replace the auxiliary power units(APU) that are currently used to supplyenergy to on board systems while the air-craft is still on the ground.

One thing that is completely unrealistic toimagine is that a commercial airlinercould be powered by solar energy collect-ed during flight. The sun’s rays are capa-ble of supplying no more than the energyneeded to power an extremely light air-craft, such as the Swiss-produced “SolarImpulse”, which was developed specifi-cally to make a record round-the-worldflight.

from hydrogenated vegetable oils, but alsofrom biowaste generated by agriculture andforestry, using the Fischer-Tropsch processdespite the amount of energy it needs. Prof.Hornung believes we are currently on thethreshold of commercialization. The variousprocesses have already been shown to bebasically suitable, at least in the prototypestages; the next step is to find optimum solu-tions for large-scale production. It is unlikelythat the industry will be able to do entirelywithout government funding, since syntheticfuels will only establish themselves if they canbe brought onto the market at competitiveprices.


K3— cool coating

When Dr. Bertram Kopperger and Dr. Manuel Hertter start talking about their latest proj-ect, people might be tempted to think that they have been watching too many episodes ofStar Wars. They talk about a particle gun that fires rounds at supersonic speed. And even thename of the new process—kinetic cold gas spraying, or “K3” for short—has a futuristic ring toit. The two MTU engineers are using the gun to spray fine powder material instead of firinglaser beams. Their mission is to repair engine components or protect them against highstresses.

By Denis Dilba

“K3 counts among the thermal spray proces-ses that include plasma spraying, flamespraying, high velocity flame spraying, andwire arc spraying,” explains Kopperger, Sen-ior Manager, Manufacturing and MROTechnologies at MTU Aero Engines inMunich. But in reality this classification issomewhat arbitrary, says the MTU expert,because the new high-performance technol-ogy differs in several major respects fromthe other processes in its class. It is thesedistinguishing features that promise to openup numerous interesting applications for thenew process in the world of industrial coat-ing.

The traditional way to protect turbine bladesor engine casing components against corro-sion or wear, and to repair them when theyare damaged, is to deposit a functional coat-

ing on the component using a thermal sprayprocess. But the turbulent flow generatedwhen the powder material comes into con-tact with the ambient air often results in aporous coating structure that is not suffi-ciently durable for certain applications. Thekinetic cold gas spraying process introducedby MTU is the first to offer a solution to thisproblem—quite apart from its potential appli-cations in other domains.

The basic working principles of the K3process can be described in simple terms.Firstly, a gas—typically helium or nitrogen—iscompressed and heated to a temperature ofaround 800 degrees Celsius, and thenexpelled at supersonic speed through a con-vergent-divergent de Laval nozzle. The pow-dered coating material is introduced intothis high-speed working gas jet with the aid

of a carrier gas. When the microscopic par-ticles in the flow of hot working gas collidewith the surface of the component—at atemperature well below their normal meltingpoint but at a very high velocity—they bondfirmly with the substrate to form a verydense layer that adheres exceptionally wellon the component surface.

“Since the comparatively low thermal energyof the particles is here compensated for bya much higher kinetic energy, the coatingparticles in the gas jet need not be moltenas with conventional thermal spray process-es,” explains Dr. Manuel Hertter. Far frombeing a drawback, this essential difference

has some major advantages. According toMTU’s thermal spraying expert, it preventsoxidization and vaporization processes thatotherwise occur within the flow of gas andhave led to problems in the past. As anadded benefit, the high particle velocityresults in a particularly dense coating.

It was precisely these oxidation and vapor-ization phenomena that Kopperger andHertter had set out to avoid, considering thereduction in adhesive strength and durabilityof the deposit they cause. “Layers appliedusing the K3 process are of such low poros-ity that we are now aiming to produce thefirst coatings that actually increase the com-

ponent’s structural durability,” saysKopperger. In other words, the applied coat-ing adheres so well to the substrate and isso strong that it is virtually impossible todiscern the coating/substrate interface, atleast in the case of low-melting materials.Another advantage of the new process isthat it is suitable for a wide variety of coat-ing materials. The low temperature of theparticles permits the K3 process to be usednot only for nickel and titanium alloys butalso magnesium. “In all other thermal spraymethods, this highly reactive material is com-pletely oxidized before it even impinges onthe surface of the component,” says Hertter.


The K3 process also scores high when itcomes to coating thickness. There is virtuallyno limit, and even several centimeters areachievable, enthuse the MTU engineers.Another advantage of the new processrelates to the diameter of the spray jet,which can be focused down to about five mil-limeters, enabling it to precisely follow sur-face contours and selectively apply coatings,sometimes even without the need for mask-ing. For comparison, Hertter points out thatwith flame spraying processes the diameterof the spraying cone is much larger. In otherwords, the coating efficiency of the new K3process is much higher, and according to theMTU expert can reach 90 percent, whereasthe best result with flame spraying is 40 per-cent.

Despite its many advantages, kinetic coldgas spraying is not a universal solution. “Eachthermal spray process has applications forwhich it is particularly suited, and K3 cannotbe a substitute for all of them,” according toKopperger. One of the requirements of thenew process is that the coating materialmust be ductile, which rules out its use as ameans of depositing ceramic coatings. And ifcertain areas of the component have to beprotected from the particle spray, sophisti-cated steel maskings have to be used,whereas simple adhesive tape is sufficientfor other thermal spray processes. Koppergertherefore sees K3 mainly as a solution forapplications “that wouldn’t have been possi-ble before,” such as depositing functionalstructures on precisely defined areas of acomponent.

For additional information, contactDr. Manuel Hertter+49 89 1489-3264

For further information on this article, go towww.mtu.de/210K3

Hertter reports that the team is currentlytesting the process as a means of restoringdamaged areas of steel, nickel, titanium, andmagnesium engine casing components. Thenew process even permits repairs that usedto make no sense from an economic point ofview. Worn-down flanges of engine casingcomponents, for example, would be carefullycut out, repaired and then welded back inplace. But in most cases the high heat inputduring welding would cause the casing todistort to such an extent that the repairedcomponent would have to be scrapped any-way. “We are working on a solution that in-volves spraying material onto the casing

using the new process and then reworkingthe new flange,” says Hertter. If this is suc-cessful, the developers intend to use thesame approach to restore sealing fins or toeliminate machining defects by applying anew layer of material.

According to Hertter MTU has been workingintensively on the K3 project since 2008. Inthe first phase, the process was used exclu-sively on non-safety-critical components.Now the aim is to perfect the coating tech-nique to the point where it can be safelyused to repair or coat rotating parts. “We planto introduce K3 as a standard process forrepairs to blades of the Tornado’s RB199engine by around 2012,” reports Kopperger.It will not be introduced in commercial main-tenance until some time later, the expert goeson to say, because in this area the companyneeds to obtain the approval of its consortiumpartners, whereas in the military sector it canundertake work under its sole responsibility.Naturally, the competitors are not sitting idleand are pursuing similar developments, saysKopperger, who has been keeping a close eyeon the market. “But whatever happens, wecan rightly claim to have pioneered the useof the K3 process in the engine industry.”

Tube segment with machined K3 spray coating on theinner diameter.

Aluminum tube with K3 spray coating and spray gun. Aluminum tube with K3 coating in the finish-machined condition.

30 31Products + Services


Solid and square-shaped, the “box” resembles an enormous wardrobe. Its doors slide openat the push of a button, revealing a room flooded with light. This is the setting for precisionwork at its best: a high-tech machine that is capable of repairing a wide range of engine com-ponents, fully automatically and more efficiently than any other known system. Located atMTU Aero Engines in Munich, it has been in production operation since September.

By Daniel Hautmann

Compressor and turbine components of air-craft engines have complex geometries—thekind that can cause something of a head-ache for specialists in the parts repair busi-ness. Previously, the only way to get to gripswith these parts was to perform measure-ments manually before carrying out the actu-al repair. However, MTU has now come upwith a design for a new machine that takesaccurate measurements of the parts and useslaser powder cladding to repair the damagedareas and restore the components to an air-worthy condition.

“We refer to it as the adaptive laser powdercladding machine, which is a bit of a mouth-ful!” says Wolfgang Werner, Senior Manager,Engineering, Parts Repair at MTU AeroEngines in Munich. The machine’s complicat-ed technical name gives some idea of justhow much high-tech wizardry has beenpacked into this 1.4-million-euro system. Itsmost impressive feature is its ability to caterto any part, whatever its shape, a featurethat experts refer to as adaption.


Adaption is important because there is somuch variation among the engine parts thattypically need repairing; given their differentapplications, they are subjected to differentforms of stress and wear. Rather than justhandling one type of component, such as

The adaptive element has so far onlypenetrated niche areas of the repairbusiness, but the aim is that it shouldgradually be incorporated in otherfields, too. Already well-established inmilling and finishing, welding has nowbecome the latest production processto adopt this new approach. “It offersa de facto leap in efficiency, whichtranslates into a faster repair pro-cess,” confirms Dr. Christoph Ader,responsible for Engineering, Commer-cial MRO at MTU.

An adaptive element has been inte-grated in repair processes for com-mercial and military propulsion sys-tems carried out by Germany’s leadingengine manufacturer, for example inthe repair of blade tips for compressorand turbine blades and blisk bladesand the restoration of turbine vanecontours.

For additional information, contactWolfgang Werner+49 89 1489-6073

For interesting multimedia services associated with this article, go towww.mtu.de/210Adaption

blades, the machine has to cope with a widerange of parts with dimensions from finger-nail-sized to hand-sized. Werner explains thatthere is a broad spectrum of very delicatecontours, with some blade tips just 0.2 mil-limeters thick and others measuring several

millimeters. What all the variants have incommon is that, sooner or later, they need tobe repaired. Airborne particles and the tre-mendous heat inside the engine wear awaymaterial and damage the blades—so muchthat their actual dimensions can end up devi-ating significantly from the original size.Experts refer to this phenomenon as “twist-ing”.

“Each individual blade has a unique damagepattern,” Werner says. That means that eachpart has to be considered in isolation in theparts repair unit. This task was previouslycarried out by experienced employees whoexamined the parts and repaired them on aconventional laser cladding machine, whichprobed the contours and welded new materi-al in place where needed. However, settingup the machine for each part was a time-con-suming business. Dirk Eckart, SeniorManager, Engineering, Parts Repair, SpecialProcesses at MTU, was frustrated with thelack of any commercially available machinesthat could support this process. He thereforedecided to take matters into his own handsand promptly came up with a plan for a suit-

able machine. Mulling over his concept, hebegan making phone calls and coordinatingthe next steps and eventually pulled togethera team of experts from research institutesand from a number of national and interna-tional companies. This ultimately gave rise tothe idea of optically measuring the actual con-tour of each individual blade and comparingit to the blade’s nominal contour (adaption),followed by the application of material in acustom-tailored deposition process.

Responsibility for measuring the part geome-tries and for the welding process fell toSiegfried Scharek from the IWS FraunhoferInstitute for Material and Beam Technologyin Dresden, who notes that “laser depositionwelding is our core competence.” Specifi-cally, the Fraunhofer specialists developedthe camera-based contour tracking systemand the coaxial nozzle that distributes thepowder—which could be titanium-, nickel-,cobalt- or steel-based—in the form of a ringaround the laser beam with a precision ofjust tenths of a millimeter, a solution thatimpressed Scharek no end: “The system’slevel of complexity is truly remarkable.”

But the machine also owes its existence toyet another technical innovation: the abilityto precisely adjust the power of the two-kilo-watt disk laser. “We can power the laserdown to 50 watts and then adjust it in incre-ments of 100 watts, something we neverthought possible before,” Werner enthuses.“That enables us to deposit material with atremendous degree of accuracy, which sig-nificantly reduces the need for rework.” Themachine’s seven axes allow it to cater to anyblade type in virtually any position, withouthaving to constantly reposition and re-clampthe part in the machine. With the systemhaving gone into production operation inSeptember, everyone involved agrees that itwas worth the effort; in fact the project teamsucceeded in reducing the time taken to per-form a typical turbine blade repair by some30 percent.

But the value the “futuristic box” representsto MTU comes not just from the efficiency ofthe blade repair process, but also from thepotential it offers for both current and futuredevelopment work: The new machine ena-bles a range of welding tests to be performed

The adaptive element

Adaptive laser powder cladding machine, a complex high-tech facility.

Precision at its best: the two-kilowatt disk laser.

Adaptive milling of a low-pressure compressorstator.

in an inert-gas atmosphere, including testsinvolving new, highly heat-resistant materialssuch as titanium aluminide. These kinds ofproofs-of-concept including all the requiredparameters previously had to be purchasedfrom external companies, many of whom nowregard what the Munich team has achievedwith a certain degree of envy, since, asWerner says, “this is the only machine of itskind anywhere in the world.”


The final touchesThe desire to set new standards is what drives all engineers, whether they work to developinnovative products or devise new processes. In the field of engine maintenance, MTU AeroEngines engineers have once again accomplished a remarkable achievement in this respect:A project team drawn from various locations has now successfully developed an automatedprocess for the difficult and time-consuming final contour machining of IAE V2500 high-pres-sure turbine vanes. And what is so special about it: Every single vane can now be given anew, optimum shape.

By Bernd Bundschu

The V2500 high-pressure turbine has twostages, each of which consists of rotorblades and stator vanes—an arrangementthat permits a high level of efficiency. Tomake sure the parts are able to withstandthe searing temperatures that occur in the

engine, the stage 1 vanes are made of MAR-M 509, a cobalt-based alloy, and the stage 2vanes of the nickel-based MAR-M 247 alloy.“We then use a plasma spraying process tocoat these high-temperature castings with a0.2 millimeter thick protective ceramic coat-

ing, before finally drilling numerous coolingair holes into them,” explains ProjectManager Marcus Klemm, a specialist in join-ing technology who develops manufacturingand repair techniques at MTU in Munich.


MTU Maintenance has been offeringmaintenance services for IAE’s best-selling V2500 engine since 1989. Thework is undertaken at the company’sfacilities in Hannover, Germany, and inZhuhai, China. With a 34-percent sharein V2500 maintenance operationsoverall, MTU is now one of the world’sleading maintenance providers for thisengine type, and in China it is theundisputed market leader. In earlyMay 2010, it celebrated the 2,500thshop visit of a V2500, which had beensent in for overhaul by Turkish airlineOnur Air.

For additional information, contactCarsten Behrens+49 511 7806-9098

For further information on this article, go towww.mtu.de/210Maintenance

ing a measuring system, a handling systemand a milling machine,” reports Klemm. Eachvane prepared by brazing is first scanned allover using a 3D laser scanner. The computerthen compares the virtual image of the vanein question with the stored contour of a new

To repair worn vanes, it is first necessary toremove their protective coating using a com-bination of chemical and mechanical pro-cesses. The cooling air holes and any crackspresent are then filled with brazing paste,which is allowed to dry before the compo-nent undergoes vacuum brazing. The nextstep is to restore the vane to its propershape. Until now, this final contouring pro-cess could only be done by hand, and MTUspecialists would carefully machine thevanes to reproduce their original geometryusing grinding sticks and small belt grinders.Dieter Scheibe, component specialist at MTUMaintenance Hannover, explains: “The jobrequires a lot of experience, a good eye fordetail and a very light touch, so you don’ttake off more material than necessary.” Therepaired vanes are subsequently given an-other ceramic coating before new cooling airholes are produced by laser drilling.

“Essentially, the new procedure follows thesame principles and sequences. Only now,the final contour of the vanes is restoredusing a fully automated adaptive milling pro-cess performed on a special facility compris-

part. Klemm continues: “These two data setscan differ quite considerably because en-gines are subjected to different stressesdepending on the type and duration of flightoperations, which result in the vanes becom-ing more or less severely distorted.”

The most notable aspect of the new processis that a repaired vane is not simply given thecontour of a new part. Instead, the softwareanalyzes the two data sets and determines anew, optimum shape for each individual vane.For the process to work, brazing alloy is notapplied all over but only where needed—themore of the original metal surface the scan-ner is able to identify, the more successfulthe restoration of the vane contour will be.The newly calculated data is then transmit-ted as a CNC file to the milling machine,which produces the final contour of the vane.

The innovative technique has a whole host ofadvantages. “Because the vanes are pro-cessed by machines, the repair quality ishigher, and the rejection rate lower,” saysBernd Kriegl, Director, Engineering Commer-cial MRO. At the same time, losses in vanewall thickness are minimized. Adaptive mill-ing allows the original vane material to bepreserved to the greatest possible extent; itis practically only the brazing alloy that isremoved, which means that vanes can berepaired more often than in the past. Forcustomers, this is significantly more cost-effective than vane replacement. Finally, thenew technique improves reproducibility andcuts the processing time. Kriegl is verypleased with the results: “Overall, automa-tion of the final contour machining processmakes sure that the vanes can be optimallyrepaired. That improves engine efficiencyand also saves the customer money.” And, ofcourse, the new capability gives MTU a com-petitive edge.

The new system was jointly planned andimplemented by the project managementteam in Munich, MTU Maintenance Hannoverand British prime contractor TTL. MTU con-tributed its expertise in adaptive millingacquired from the manufacture of blisks,while TTL programmed the software andacted as system integrator. Carsten Behrens,who supervises the vane repair lines at MTUMaintenance Hannover, is fully satisfied withthe job done by TTL: “Thanks to their com-mitment, we were able to cut the processingtime from initially 25 to 17 minutes and min-imize wear of the milling tools. We’ve alreadyintroduced the process in production, andthe results achieved so far fully meet specifi-cation requirements in terms of quality andprocessing time.”

In future, the automated final contourmachining process will be used for all repairsto V2500 high-pressure turbine vanes atMTU Maintenance Hannover—that is over12,000 a year. In the long term, the MTUengineers intend to use the new techniqueon other blades and vanes as well, gatheringexperience along the way that they hope willbe useful for processing even more complexcomponent structures in the near future.

Boasting innovative techniques anddecades of experience, MTU Mainte-nance is able to carry out cost-effec-tive repairs even of severely worn as-semblies, components and acces-sories. Where others would simplyreplace a part, MTU will repair it.

MTU’s high-tech repair capabilities areunique in the world; most of the pro-cesses are patented, and known bythe brand name MTUPlus Repairs.Examples include Autoclave AirfoilCleaning, which was developed specif-ically to clean sand-clogged coolingholes, ERCoat, an erosion-inhibitingcoating, and CBN Tip Protection, awear-resistant hardfacing for the tipsof high-pressure turbine blades.

Repair beatsreplacement

Already in productive use: fully automated final contour machining system for blades and vanes. Clamped component and tool ready for the final touches.

A high-pressure turbine vane before and after machining to produce the optimum contour.

Assembly of a V2500 engine at MTU Mainte-nance Zhuhai.

An MTU customer of many years: Turkish air-line Onur Air.

Products + Services38 39

MAX1— A great leap forward

By Martina Vollmuth

One of the two companies builds the world’s biggest industrial compressors and the other thefinest compressors for aero-engine applications. Three years ago, MAN Diesel & Turbo and MTU AeroEngines joined forces in a project to develop a new MAN hybrid axial compressor. It is the first of itskind and the forerunner of an entirely new generation of compressors. As a reduced-scale rig knownas MAX1 it has now entered the test phase at MTU in Munich.

In late July, members of the executive man-agement and the development teams fromboth companies came together at MTU inMunich for the traditional last-bolt ceremo-ny. This symbolic act was performed jointlyby Klaus Stahlmann, CEO of MAN Diesel &Turbo, and the host of the event, Egon Behle,

CEO of MTU Aero Engines. It marked the offi-cial go-ahead for the test program, which willbe conducted on the MAX1 rig, a reducedone-third scale model of the new compres-sor, which initially consists of seven stages.The first series of tests will focus exclusivelyon the new axial blading for the future axial-

radial compressor. The seven-stage versionof the compressor is expected to be broughtto the market before the year is out. It will befollowed in the spring of 2012 by other ver-sions featuring a greater number of stages,after testing has been completed on a sec-ond, ten-stage MAX1 rig.

For additional information, contactDieter-Eduard Wolf +49 89 1489-6670

For interesting multimedia services associated with this article, go towww.mtu.de/210MAX1

Last bolt ceremony: MTU CEO Egon Behle and MAN Diesel & Turbo CEO Klaus Stahlmann (from left) are tightening the last bolt.

The new MAN hybrid axial compressor with the instrumentation being fitted.

Axial compressors are one of the core com-petencies of MAN Diesel & Turbo. The largestindustrial compressors ever built were pro-duced at the German company’s Ober-hausen plant. The giant machines have beeninstalled in Ras Laffan, Qatar, and Escravos,Nigeria, where they are used in air separa-tion units in plants for the production of fuelsfrom natural gas, coal and biomass, and forother applications. The new series representsa great leap forward in compressor technol-ogy. Dr. Hans-O. Jeske, Chief TechnologyOfficer and Head of the TurbomachineryStrategic Business Unit at MAN Diesel &Turbo, says: “As the world market leader inaxial compressors, we have closely followedthe trend towards ever bigger plant complex-es and have therefore constantly developedour relevant products to ensure ‘mega capa-bility’. However, to economically meet theperformance requirements of future plantsizes, we needed a technological quantumleap. We have now managed this—after threeyears of development work—with the enginecompressor technology know-how of MTU.”

The result of the joint development effort isa compressor design that, thanks to a novelblading concept, combines the advantagesof industrial compressors—high efficiency,robust design and wide operating range—with the significantly higher power density ofgas-turbine compressors. MAN Diesel &Turbo CEO Stahlmann attributes this successto an approach that “combines the besttechnologies of both worlds”. And MTU CEOBehle adds: “MTU has contributed its com-

pressor know-how to optimize the bladingdesign.”

With MAX1 both companies are treading newtrails. For MAN it is the biggest compressordevelopment project the company has evertackled, also in terms of the financial invest-ment. For MTU, it is above all the size of thenew compressor that made it a challengingproject, the company usually handling com-pressors of much smaller dimensions. Thelatest MTU compressor for the geared turbo-fan engine, which was tested on the sametest facility, weighs in at 300 kilograms andhas a diameter of approximately 50 centime-ters. Compare this with the impressive sevenmetric tons of the one-third scale model of

the new MAN compressor’s seven-stage ver-sion. When scaled up to its full real size, itsweight will be somewhere in the region of340 metric tons, and its diameter will be aslarge as 600 centimeters. MTU had to modi-fy the test cell to be able to accommodateMAX1. New pipes were laid to modify theexhaust system, adding three metric tons tothe weight of the test facility. And 26 metrictons of steel were used to reinforce the foun-dations.

MAX1 is visible proof of the fruitful coopera-tion between two companies from differentindustries. According to Dr. Kai Ziegler, VicePresident, Engineering, Compressors atMAN Diesel & Turbo, “MTU was our partnerof choice for this joint development project.Collaboration has been excellent and MAX1is a showcase project in this respect.” Heattributes the project’s successful outcometo “MTU’s outstanding engineering expert-ise” and also to the close ties between thetwo companies. “MTU and MAN have ashared history, and we were lucky to havesome former MTU employees on our team.So our cooperation went exceptionallysmoothly.” There is consensus among all in-volved that it is certainly worthwhile to con-tinue the exemplary partnership between thetwo companies.

4140 Report

Make it clean and keep it cleanBy Silke Hansen

The de-icing vehicle’s cabin is rising over the wings of a Lufthansa Airbus A340-600 parked on the tarmac, as highas 15 meters above the ground. It is a cold, damp February day at Munich Airport and there is a lot to do for the“polar bears”. That is what the de-icing crews affectionately call the highly-efficient and environmentally-friendly pur-pose-built vehicles used to de-ice aircraft prior to take-off while these sit in dedicated zones close to the runwayheads, the so-called “remote areas”. During the de-icing season, which in this part of the country runs from Octoberto April, the “polar bears” go to work on as many as 13,000 aircraft.

The airliner, which is bound for SanFrancisco International Airport, is due totake off in a few minutes. But before it does,it will be given a warm shower. “We’re thelargest airport to carry out this kind of de-icing routine right next to the runway. Theaircraft can take off without undue delayand without having to be retreated,” saysHans-Joachim Püschner, Managing Director

of EFM (Gesellschaft für Enteisen und Flug-zeugschleppen am Flughafen München mbH),a provider of de-icing and towing services.

Up to four of the vehicles work on an aircraftsimultaneously. They use remote-controllednozzles maneuvered by the operators in thecabin to within a meter of the surface to betreated to spray de-icing fluid over the wingsand the horizontal and vertical stabilizers onthe tail. They have to be both quick andaccurate—the next aircraft is already waitingin line. Clouds of billowing steam appear assoon as the de-icers set to work. The de-icing agent—a thin, orange-colored mixtureof water and glycol—is heated as high as 85degrees Celsius before it is applied, andthaws ice or snow as fast as lightning.

4342 Report

recycling does make sense neither from aneconomic point of view nor from an ecologi-cal perspective since the process uses muchenergy. Püschner is proud of the recyclingrates achieved in Munich: “We recycle 53percent of the glycol we use. That’s morethan any other airport does,” he says. And itis not only the airlines that save money as aresult, the airport, too, benefits from this“green” de-icing service. Püschner explains:“We supply waste heat from the recyclingplant to the energy cycle and use it for air-port heating purposes.” “Ecology meets eco-nomy”, is how Püschner characterizes theexemplary recycling system in place atMunich airport. Here, recycling is an issue ofgrowing significance because the quantitiesof de-icing agent used are increasing.Munich is becoming an increasingly impor-tant air travel hub, and the aircraft landingthere are bigger than they used to be.

For additional information, contactKurt Scheidt+49 89 1489-3963

For further information on this article, go towww.mtu.de/210Deicing

For an aircraft to fly without a hiccup, itsengines must be in perfect operating con-dition. So when ice and snow occur in thewinter, the engines are always the firstparts of an aircraft to be de-iced. Hans-Joachim Püschner, Managing Director ofEFM (Gesellschaft für Enteisen und Flug-zeugschleppen am Flughafen MünchenmbH), says: “We do that at the parkingposition, while the aircraft is being fueledand loaded. Engines aren’t covered atnight—that would simply take too muchtime and effort.” They are cleaned usingnothing but hot air, because de-icingagent could get into the cabin ventilationsystem and cause a rather pungent smellon board.

“On an engine, ice will form mainly in theinlet casing and on the nose cone,” saysKurt Scheidt, head of Civil Engine Testingat MTU. “But when an engine is started,the fan must be able to rotate freely. Icecan also affect the aerodynamics and thusthe engine’s operation. And at higherspeeds, the ice would break up and chipoff.” If that happens, it can get ingestedinto the engine and cause damage.

After it has been de-iced and started, theengine protects itself against frost. “Onceit’s running, there’s no need for furtherde-icing prior to take-off. An engine pro-

Ice-free engines

duces hot air, which is used to keep the crit-ical areas free of ice. For the purpose, the airis bled off the high pressure compressor andfed via the shaft to the nose cone and fromthere through other pipelines to the inlet cas-ing.”

Aircraft also have their own heating systems,whether electric or working on hot bleed airfrom the engine. The leading edges of the

De-icing is very important because all theaerodynamically critical parts of an aircraftmust be kept free of ice and snow in the win-ter. Even a thin film of ice can be enough tocause problems during take-off. The buildupof ice adds to the aircraft’s overall weightand, more importantly, it impairs its aerody-namic efficiency; it disturbs the airflow andcan even cause a stall when worst comes toworst. That is why pilots adhere to the rule:Make it clean and keep it clean. It is the pilot,

after all, who decides whether the aircraftneeds to be de-iced or not, and for how longit should be protected against new ice. Ifanti-icing protection is required, the de-iceroperators finish their job by applying agreen-colored liquid which is undiluted andmore viscous than the de-icing agent so thatit adheres to the aircraft for longer and safe-ly prevents new ice from forming prior totake-off.

The amount of de-icing fluid used dependson the thickness of the ice and the size of theaircraft. Up to 2,000 liters may be needed tode-ice a Boeing 747. At Munich Airport, theglycol mixture is collected in drain channels.If the waste water contains more than fivepercent glycol, it is fed to special basins andthen treated in the airport’s own recyclingfacility to produce new de-icing fluid. If theglycol content is lower, it is disposed of viathe wastewater treatment plant. In this case,

wings and the stabilizers are the criticalareas. For smaller aircraft, a simple pneu-matic pump system generally suffices;rubber boots on the surfaces inflate regu-larly, causing any ice to break up and dropoff. Scheidt explains that ice is most like-ly to form during take-off and landing, aswell as during climbs and descents. “Atcruising altitude, it’s cold but dry. Theweather’s always good up there,” he says.

The Lufthansa aircraft bound for SanFrancisco is now ice-free and ready for take-off. The de-icing agent drains off the aircraftas it takes off from the runway, as it wouldotherwise reduce lift. Once the aircraft is air-borne, on board systems and hot bleed airfrom the engine compressor ensure itremains ice-free until is has safely landed.Meanwhile, on the ground, the de-icing vehi-cles are already clustered round their nextcustomer. On their busiest days, they de-icealmost 500 aircraft. “With 520 scheduledtake-offs a day and just a few weather-relat-ed cancellations, we’re de-icing practicallyevery single aircraft,” says Püschner. Hismen are also on standby at night, as everynow and then air ambulances are called outto emergencies. During the 2009/2010 win-ter season, they administered glycol showersto almost 12,000 aircraft, from small Lear-jets to Airbus A340s.

The “polar bears” of Munich airport.

Sometimes, de-icing may even be necessaryin mid-summer. Munich’s de-icing specialistexplains: “If an aircraft has cold fuel in itstanks and the weather’s damp, clear ice canform on the wings despite the warm ambienttemperature.” That kind of ice is particularlytreacherous because it is almost invisible tothe naked eye. When it does occur, the de-icing vehicles are hauled out of their parkingarea to make short work of preparing the air-craft for take-off.

Ice in the engine intake is removed using hot air.

The glycol mixture is collected via drain channels in the tarmac. Glycol recycling facility at Munich airport.

MTU Aero Engines

Revenuesof which OEM business

of which commercial engine businessof which military engine business

of which commercial MRO businessEBIT (calculated on a comparable basis)

of which OEM businessof which commercial MRO business

EBIT margin (calculated on a comparable basis)in the OEM businessin the commercial MRO business

Net income (IFRS)Earnings per share (undiluted)Free cash flowResearch and development expenses

of which company-funded R&Dof which outside-funded R&D

Capital expenditure

Order backlogof which OEM businessof which commercial MRO business

Employees

H1 2009

1,376.0802.1570.2231.9589.0137.1

98.439.9

10.0 %12.3 %

6.8 %55.7

€ 1.1466.793.953.140.859.6

Dec. 31, 09

4,150.93,965.1

185.87,665

H1 2010

1,348.8819.0569.7249.3544.0144.1103.0

39.210.7 %12.6 %

7.2 %60.6

€ 1.24125.1107.8

70.137.744.4

June 30, 10

4,717.24,524.6

198.07,739

Change

- 2.0 %+ 2.1 %- 0.1 %

+ 7.5 %- 7.6 %

+ 5.1 %+ 4.7 %- 1.8 %

+ 8.8 %+ 8.8 %

+ 87.6 %+ 14.8 %+ 32.0 %

- 7.6 %- 25.5 %Change

+ 13.6 %+ 14.1 %

+ 6.6 %+ 1.0 %

MTU Aero Engines – Key financial data forJanuary through June 2010

(Figures quoted in € million, calculated on a comparable basis, statements pre-pared in accordance with IFRS. Figures calculated on a comparative basisapply adjustments to the IFRS consolidated results to exclude restructuringand transaction costs, capitalized development costs, and the effects of IFRSpurchase accounting.)

MTU Maintenance Hannover has expanded itsrepair capabilities by including GE Aviation’sGE90-110B and -115B engines in its portfolio.The addition of these propulsion systems forwide-body aircraft, which are sold successfullyworldwide, broadens the facility’s range of prod-ucts and services. The necessary certificateshave already been obtained from the EuropeanAir Safety Agency (EASA) and its U.S. counter-part, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

The GE90-110B and -115B are the exclusive pow-erplants for Boeing’s 777-200LR and 777-300ER. To date, some 300 of the world’s largesttwinjets are in revenue service around the globe,and about another 300 units are on order.

MTU Maintenance adds GE90-110Band -115B engines to its portfolio

British regional airline BA CityFlyer will send the22 CF34-8E and CF34-10E engines powering itsfleet of Embraer 170 and 190 jets to MTU Mainte-nance Berlin-Brandenburg for maintenance andrepair.

The wholly-owned subsidiary of British Airwayshas signed a seven-year agreement with theLudwigsfelde maintenance specialists, which isvalued at some 20 million euros. It includesoptions to add more engines powering Embraer170s or 190s and provisions for an extension ofthe term of the contract.

CityFlyer relies on MTU Maintenance

The CF34 engines powering CityFlyer’s Embraer jets are now maintained by MTU’s Ludwigsfelde shop.

GE90 engines help extend the range of Boeing 777 airliners. They are supported by MTU Maintenance Hannover.

Positive first-half-year business resultsMTU Aero Engines has posted successfulresults for the first six months of this year.Revenues amounted to around 1.3 billioneuros. The operating profit, or EBIT, im-proved by five percent to 144.1 million eurosand net income increased by nine percent to60.6 million euros.

“MTU has achieved good results in the pastsix months,” said a pleased Egon Behle whenhe presented the half-year report in Munich.The MTU CEO is also confident about thefuture: “The market is picking up as expectedand we are additionally benefiting from thetailwind of the euro’s falling exchange rateagainst the U.S. dollar. These circumstances

have permitted us to lift our full-year fore-cast. We are now aiming for revenues ofaround 2.75 billion euros by the end of theyear and earnings (EBIT adjusted) in the re-gion of 310 million euros.” Behle expects thefree cash flow to reach 120 million euros,even while maintaining the present high levelof investments into the company’s future.

MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg inLudwigsfelde has a new President and CEO:André Sinanian has taken over the reignsfrom Dr. Wolfgang Konrad effective October1, 2010.

Dr. Stefan Weingartner, MTU Aero Engines’President and CEO, Commercial Mainte-nance: “André Sinanian is a capable managerand has substantial experience working atour company. With him at the helm, the im-pressive success story of the Berlin-Branden-

New man at the helm of MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburgburg location is sure to continue.”

Sinanian, who holds a degree in aerospaceengineering, has been with the companysince 1999. He served diverse managementand project functions at MTU Aero Engines’various locations before he was appointedVice President & COO CF34 program twoyears ago. In this function he was responsi-ble for all activities relating to the mainte-nance of that highly successful engine family.

André Sinanian

4544 In Brief

Printed byEBERL PRINT GmbHKirchplatz 687509 Immenstadt • Germany

Contributions credited to authors do not neces-sarily reflect the opinion of the editors. We willnot be held responsible for unsolicited material.Reprinting of contributions is subject to the editors’ approval.

Masthead

EditorMTU Aero Engines GmbHEckhard ZangerSenior Vice President Corporate Communicationsand Public Affairs

Editor in chiefHeidrun MollTel. +49 89 1489-3537Fax +49 89 [email protected]

Final editorMartina VollmuthTel. +49 89 1489-5333Fax +49 89 [email protected]

AddressMTU Aero Engines GmbH Dachauer Straße 66580995 Munich • Germanywww.mtu.de

Editorial staffBernd Bundschu, Denis Dilba, Achim Figgen,Silke Hansen, Daniel Hautmann, Patrick Hoeveler,Odilo Mühling, Martina Vollmuth, Andreas vomBruch

LayoutManfred Deckert Sollnerstraße 73 81479 Munich • Germany

4746 In Brief

Multimedia on the Internet

The renowned U.S. trade journal AviationWeek & Space Technology has chosen Mu-nich, the place of business of Germany’sleading engine manufacturer MTU Aero En-gines, as the venue for the first Engine MROForum held in Europe. The forum, whichdeals with intelligent innovations for enginemaintenance, brings together experts fromMRO facilities, engine manufacturers and air-lines. It will be held at the Westin GrandMunich hotel from November 30 to Decem-ber 1, 2010. MTU, a main sponsor of theevent, will attend the forum and also host atour of its Munich facility.

Dr. Stefan Weingartner, President and CEO,Commercial Maintenance, will deliver theopening keynote address, entitled “Innova-tive Strategies to Meet Future Challenges”.

Debut in Europe

New faculty in MunichMTU Maintenance Zhuhai is set to grow:To boost its market clout, the Chineselocation, which occupies a 156,000-square-meter plot of land in the ZhuhaiSpecial Economic Zone, plans to increaseits shop and office floor space by 10,000square meters to almost 33,000 squaremeters. The expansion is expected to becompleted in the spring of 2012.

The company is the largest maintenanceprovider for aircraft engines in China andspecializes in V2500, CFM56-3, -5B and-7 engines. In the regional market, theshop has become the market leader inV2500 repairs.

MTU Maintenance Zhuhai’s targets areambitious: In a few years’ time, the shopexpects to provide service support formarkedly more V2500 and CFM56engines than today by increasing itscapacity from presently 200 to 300 shopvisits a year. It also plans to add otherengine types to its portfolio.

Success story in the Middle Kingdom

The first day of the event is dedicated totechnical lectures and the exchange of knowl-edge and experience. The highlight of thesecond day is a shop tour at MTU, duringwhich attendees will see first-hand howMTU’s facility operates. The company willpresent its highly advanced production andmaintenance shops, a full-scale geared tur-bofan model, a V2500 on the test bed, as-sembly of the GP7000 low-pressure turbineand final assembly of the Eurofighter’s EJ200engine.

For further information go to: www.aviationweek.com/events/current/mroeng/index.htm

The new building of MTU Maintenance Zhuhai wasofficially opened in a ceremony attended by re-presentatives of the German and Chinese partners.

The first extension, a shop with a floor space areaof around 3,700 square meters, has been up andrunning since the summer.

Performed to bring good luck and fortune: the liondance.

Two of six great motives: MTU wallpapers and screen-savers can be downloaded on almost all types of enddevices.

MTU technology on board—as from now onthis not only applies to a wide variety of com-mercial and military aircraft but also tomobile phones, PDAs and computer screens.

The research community in Bavaria has anew member, the Munich Aerospace faculty.It was founded in July this year by the Tech-nical University of Munich, the university ofthe German Federal Armed Forces in Munich,the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and Bau-haus Luftfahrt. The new faculty is intended toprovide a research, development and educa-tional platform for Munich’s aerospace in-dustry.

With this new and promising model, the part-ners from industry, research and develop-ment are hoping to pool academic and non-academic talent in a constructive manner—for the benefit of everybody involved and tohelp make air traffic cleaner and safer. Thenew faculty will have 55 professorships.

The founders of the new faculty (from left): Presidentof the Technical University of Munich Prof. Dr. Wolf-gang Herrmann, DLR Board Chairman Prof. Dr. Jo-hann-Dietrich Wörner, Bavarian Minister of EconomicAffairs Martin Zeil, President of the university of theGerman armed forces in Munich Prof. Dr. MerithNiehuss, and Bauhaus Luftfahrt CEO Prof. Dr. MirkoHornung.

MTU is offering wallpapers and screensaversthat are easy to download on almost all typesof end devices. Images of the Eurofighter andthe Airbus A380 as well as of engine compo-nents manufactured by MTU, embedded innature photographs, are available for down-loading.

And aviation enthusiasts who want to have areal great ringtone for their mobile phonecan download the powerful sound of theEurofighter’s EJ200 engine at take-off. Wall-papers, screensavers and ringtones can bedownloaded from the company’s website atwww.mtu.de.

MTU Aero Engines photo archiveU.S. Air Force, MTU Aero Engines photoarchiveAvio, Rolls-Royce, Snecma, Volvo Aero,MTU Aero Engines photo archiveAirbusLuftwaffe/Flugbereitschaft, U.S. AirForce, MTU Aero Engines photo archiveU.S. Air Force, MTU Aero Engines photoarchiveBauhaus Luftfahrt, EADS, Arizona StateUniversity, Sapphire Energy, DeutscheLufthansa, MTU Aero Engines photoarchiveMTU Aero Engines photo archiveMTU Aero Engines photo archiveMTU Aero Engines photo archiveMAN Diesel & Turbo, MTU Aero Enginesphoto archiveEFM – Gesellschaft für Enteisen undFlugzeugschleppen am FlughafenMünchen, Flughafen MünchenBoeing, Embraer, Uli Benz/TechnischeUniversität München, MTU Aero Enginesphoto archive

Photo creditsCover Page:Pages 2–6

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Pages 10–11Pages 12–15

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Pages 26–29Pages 30–33Pages 34–37Pages 38–39

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