Safran Helicopter Engines has begun development on the most powerful engine it has ever created — but is already looking ahead at architectures that could increase that by another 50 percent.
SAFHAL Helicopter Engines — a joint venture between Safran and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — signed a contract last year to design, develop, manufacture and support a next generation engine for the Indian Ministry of Defence’s future 13-ton Indian Multi-Role Helicopter (IMRH).
Speaking to journalists during a briefing at Verticon in Dallas, Texas, Safran Helicopter Engine CEO Cédric Goubet said the engine, known as Aravalli, “will be closer to 4,000 shaft horsepower than to 3,000.”
“For us, it’s already the most powerful engine we have ever developed,” he said. “The development, it’s starting — it’s not only a [theoretical] project now. . . . We have a clear commitment to develop a product and support this engine.”
The company is aiming to have the engine ready to support an entry into service in the “beginning of next decade.”
Meanwhile, the company has also begun work through its 50/50 joint venture with MTU Aero Engines to develop engine technologies for a heavy helicopter as part of the European Next Generation Rotorcraft Technologies (ENGRT) program.
The companies announced the joint venture, known as EURA (derived from EUropean Military Rotorcraft Engine Alliance), at the Paris Airshow in 2023, and called the need for a European-developed engine for ENGRT “a matter of sovereignty.”
In January, the European Defense Fund (EDF) announced €25 million funding for research to mature engine technologies for program
“There is a lot to do, and we have to be supported,” said Goubet. “I think we have convinced some nations, and the European Commission to do it and to launch this call . . . to fund preliminary studies about various options for the architecture of the engine, the technology building blocks, threat study, [and] preliminary studies.”
He said the program will not see an end product any time soon, with any potential development not launching until the beginning of the 2030s, with an entry into service no earlier than 2040.
“So far, we are agnostic on the architecture of the future platform, and we will study all rounds of solutions, between 4,000 shaft horsepower up to 6,000,” said Goubet.
In the meantime, he said it would be “interesting to envision a midlife upgrade” of the NH90. “It belongs to the nations to decide if they want to go ahead with a midlife version of the airframe and of the engines — and we will be ready for that as Safran Helicopter Engines.”
