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MTU Aero Engines Holding AG 

Dachauer Straße 665 

80995 Munich • Germany 

Tel. +49 89 1489-0 

Fax +49 89 1489-5500 

www.mtu.de 

Technology + Science Products + Services Interview + Report 

Optimized bestseller 

Thrust for Saudi 

Arabia 

Summer/Fall 2008 

Making the right choices 

“Eurofighter – the German Air 

Force’s system of the future”

Contents 

Cover Story 

Making the right choices 4 - 7 

Technology + Science 


The fine art of patching 

MTU Global 

8 - 11 

12 - 13 

A new brand is born 14 - 15 

Customers + Partners 

Desert boom town 

A veritable power pack 

Products + Services 

Milestones 

Thrust for Saudi Arabia 

Interview + Report 

“Eurofighter Typhoon – the German 

Air Force’s system of the future” 

Pilotless aircraft 

Anecdote 

16 - 19 

20 - 21 

22 - 23 

24 - 27 

28 - 29 

30 - 31 

Perfectionists in the sky 32 - 35 

News 

Masthead 

36 - 39 

39 

Making the right choices 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has selected it as the sole engine choice for the 

Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), and also Bombardier will equip its CSeries with it: 

Pratt & Whitney’s geared turbofan (GTF) is gaining momentum and is obviously 

here to stay. 

Page 4 

Thrust for Saudi Arabia 

The Eurofighter Typhoon has scored its 

second export deal winning a contract 

from Saudi Arabia. Worth billions, the 

contract is hoped to have a knock-on 

effect triggering further sales in the 

global market. 

Page 24 


A new chapter is being opened in the 

V2500’s book of achievements: 

SelectOne is the optimized version of 

the best-selling engine built by International 

Aero Engines (IAE). 

Page 8 

“Eurofighter – the German Air Force’s system of the future” 

Interview with Lieutenant General Klaus-Peter Stieglitz: The Chief of Staff of the 

German Air Force is a pilot himself and regularly flies Europe’s most advanced and 

capable fighter aircraft. 

Page 28 

Editorial 

Dear Readers: 

The German International Aerospace Exhibition, 

today’s Berlin ILA, was first staged 99 

years ago. That puts it on the threshold of a 

new century. Aviation, too, is standing on the 

threshold of a new era: In view of impending 

climate change, aircraft need to be quieter, 

fuel-thriftier and cleaner, and their engines 

along with them. For years we engine makers 

have been working on novel green technologies 

and now have found a suitable solution 

in the geared turbofan engine. Its introduction 

will mark a milestone in the history of 

aviation and readily compare with the advent 

of the turbofan some 40 years ago. 

Pratt & Whitney and MTU have joined forces 

to develop the technological base for the 

geared turbofan in a plurality of research programs. 

This amount of groundwork is gradually 

paying dividends: the geared turbofan 

has passed its ground tests with flying colors, 

and flight testing will be next. These initial encouraging 

results have prompted Mitsubishi 

and Bombardier to select the geared turbofan 

as the sole engine choice for their next generation 

of regional aircraft to fly from 2013. 

We expect the engine demand to run around 

4,500 units. 

If the geared turbofan proves its worth in 

daily operations, it will be a likely engine candidate 

for Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 successor 

aircraft. When they enter service in 

the latter half of the next decade, the new 

short- and medium-haul airplanes are expected 

to provide appreciable fuel savings. 

Their market volume will run far above that of 

regional aircraft. For MTU, they constitute 

the most significant potential geared turbofan 

segment by far. Considering the significance 

the V2500 with its sole application in 

the A320 family has for MTU, you can imagine 

the significance the new engine will have, 

being supposed to find takers in both Airbus 

and Boeing. 

The geared turbofan concept carries great 

significance also technologically: our Claire 

(Clean Air Engine) technology program revolves 

around it. In three steps, we hope by 

2035 to reduce CO 2 emissions by 30 percent 

and halve the noise. Importantly, none of the 

technologies required for the purpose still 

need inventing; they have all been tried and 

tested or have been validated for feasibility. 

The geared turbofan combines latest technologies: 

a gearbox, a highly efficient highpressure 

compressor, and a high-speed lowpressure 

turbine as a key component. Even 

the components envisioned to optimize it subsequently—the 

counterrotating fan and the 

heat exchanger—have already been tested 

and have given outstanding results. 

All this makes it very clear that for MTU, 

technology and cost leadership remain key 

to maintaining competitiveness and highskilled 

job security in Germany long-term. 

Sincerely yours 

Egon Behle 

Chief Executive Officer 

2 3

Making the 

right choices 

By Patrick Hoeveler 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI) has selected it as the sole engine choice for the 

Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ), and also Bombardier will equip its CSeries with it: Pratt & 

Whitney’s geared turbofan (GTF), is gaining momentum and is obviously here to stay. That 

marks the first step on the road to creating a new product family. MTU Aero Engines is planning 

to take an approximate 15-percent stake in either of the two GTF versions. 

The German engine maker is also betting on 

a third engine, expecting to take a roughly 

15-percent stake in the PW810 at the lower 

end of the thrust range. It is being built by 

Pratt & Whitney Canada and targeted at the 

new Cessna Citation Columbus. While this 

engine comes without a gearbox, it nevertheless 

joins the two geared turbofan 

engines in an extended product family. Dr. 

Christian Winkler, who heads business 

development at MTU, explains: “The common 

core is scaled and adapted also in 

terms of the materials used. In this approach, 

the MRJ engine constitutes the 

basic version of the geared turbofan.” Taken 

across the full life of the programs, the 

engine trio is worth a potential 12 billion 

euros in sales for MTU. 

4 Cover Story 

5

The next generation of regional jets – the Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ). 

The MRJ is a 70-to-90-passenger commercial 

transport to enter revenue service in 2013. 

The MRJ70 will be rated at 67 kilonewtons, 

the larger MRJ90 at a takeoff thrust of 76 

kilonewtons. Its market volume is estimated 

at 1,500 units. Official program launch is 

expected to occur this year. The Japanese 

opted for the geared turbofan on account of 

its 15 percent lower operating costs. “A 

major part of that is due to its lower fuel consumption,” 

Winkler says. 

Compared to today’s best-selling engines in 

this thrust class the new design offers a 

reduction of maintenance costs of 40 percent 

according to Robert Saia, Vice President 

Next Generation Product Family at Pratt & 

Whitney. “Additionally it is about ten decibels 

quieter.” 

The big advantage afforded by geared turbofans 

is their reduction gear, which decouples 

the fan from the remaining low-pressure system. 

That allows the components to run in 

their respective optimum speed ranges to 

improve efficiency. “By decoupling the fan it 

turns at a third of the speed of the rest of the 

low-pressure system. This way we can increase 

the speeds of the low-pressure compressor 

and turbine. Thus, for a given thrust 

range we can reduce the number of stages of 

the low-pressure compressor and the lowpressure 

turbine,” the American engineer 

says. 

The concept also enables bigger fan diameters 

to be selected, which in turn makes for 

larger bypass ratios and hence lower fuel 

consumption. “We try to make the fan as 

large as possible. The slower it turns the more 

efficient and quieter it gets,” explains Saia. 

At this time, negotiations are underway between 

MTU and Pratt & Whitney regarding 

the size of MTU’s stakes. “We’re seeking 

module responsibility in development and 

manufacturing,” Winkler confirms. The 

Munich people have set their sights on two 

components, hoping to bag a stake in the 

compressor, apart from the high-speed lowpressure 

turbine. For MTU, the bargaining 

position looks compelling, not least on account 

of the Germans’ low-pressure turbine 

expertise. That turbine is a key component of 

the geared turbofan. Says Winkler: “On the 

high-pressure compressor, we’re targeting 

the stake we already had in the experimental 

compressor. That would be the first four 

stages, which is about half the compressor.” 

Developed in partnership with Pratt & 

Whitney, this eight-stage high-pressure compressor 

has its first test phase behind it. “In 

the process, it attained its efficiency and stability 

goals throughout,” Winkler says. “It has 

a high 17:1 pressure ratio and its size is targeted 

at the potential successor models of 

the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. In a downscaled 

version, the compressor will be used, 

for instance, also on the MRJ and 

Bombardier’s CSeries engine.” 

The aircraft of the Canadian CSeries are conceived 

to seat 110 and 130 passengers, and 

enter revenue service in 2013, like the MRJ. 

MTU estimates its market volume at roughly 

3,000 units in the approximately 102-kilonewton 

thrust range. The decisions made by 

the regional aircraft makers may point the 

way for the industry in general. The MTU 

manager is confident that “if the geared turbofan 

actually prevails and meets expectations 

in this domain, that is sure to have a 

ripple effect on the next-generation singleaisle 

aircraft.” 

First results coming in from a geared turbofan 

demonstrator based on the PW6000 

speak for themselves. “We’ve met specifications 

for specific fuel consumption and effi- 

The geared turbofan demonstrator on Pratt & Whitney’s advanced test facility in West Palm Beach, Florida. The high-pressure compressor developed jointly by MTU and Pratt & Whitney on MTU’s test stand. 

ciency,” Winkler emphasizes. The demonstrator 

features a gearbox and a new lowpressure 

system including MTU’s high-speed 

low-pressure turbine. Compared with the 

standard PW6000, fuel consumption is much 

superior, albeit not yet comparable with later 

product applications that will come with a 

new core. Flight tests planned for mid-year 

are expected to demonstrate that capability 

also when airborne. But even idling on the 

test stand, the engine has impressed Winkler 

and his colleagues. “It’s so quiet you can keep 

up a conversation standing right next to it.” 

For additional information, contact 

Dr. Christian Winkler 

+49 89 1489-8663 

For interesting multimedia services 

associated with this article, go to: 

www.mtu.de/108GTF_E 

6 Cover Story 

7


By Nicole Geffert 

A new chapter is being opened in the V2500’s book of achievements: SelectOne is the 

optimized version of the best-selling V2500 that International Aero Engines (IAE) brought to 

market over two decades ago. The reliable engine has been refined to reduce fuel consumption, 

boost time on wing and cut maintenance costs. Production launch of the upgrade is 

scheduled in summer 2008. 

“SelectOne comes as a direct response to 

customer demands,” explains Leo Müllenholz, 

who heads IAE programs at MTU Aero 

Engines. The program director is confident 

that “improved reliability and reduced maintenance 

costs make the new build standard 

attractive for airlines” and that “it will help 

IAE to retain the lead it has over competitors.” 

IAE has further refined the class-leading 

engine. Fuel consumption has been reduced 

by another percentage point, with a corresponding 

reduction in emissions. Time on 

wing has been extended, too, allowing 

SelectOne to remain on the aircraft 20 

percent longer than its trusted V2500-A5 

predecessor model. 

8 Technology + Science 

9

“Our focus is on longevity of the product and 

we’re continuously enhancing it to benefit 

our customers,” Müllenholz emphasizes. 

After the V2500-A1 version had been improved 

to become the V2500-A5, the 

SelectOne standard constitutes another 

step forward. The V2500-A5 is designed to 

suit the varying requirements of the A320 

family of aircraft; in the 22,000- to 33,000pound 

thrust range, there are seven versions 

in total. Thanks to its cost effectiveness, reliability 

and environmental credentials, the 

V2500 has, from its inception, been the 

engine of choice for this Airbus family. 

MTU’s role in the V2500 program is the fivestage, 

low-pressure turbine, which is assembled 

at MTU Maintenance Berlin-Brandenburg. 

As co-founder of the multinational IAE 

engine consortium, the German company is 

holding a roughly 11-percent stake in the 

V2500. Pratt & Whitney contributes the combustor 

and the high-pressure turbine, Rolls- 

Royce is responsible for the high-pressure 

compressor, and Japanese Aero Engines 

Corporation for the fan and low-pressure 

compressor. 

“The modifications embodied in SelectOne, 

as compared with the standard V2500-A5 

version, mainly involve the high-pressure 

compressor and turbine, as well as the electronic 

engine control,” explains MTU’s 

Stephan Krinner, V2500 technical program 

engineer. The optimized high-pressure com- 

Testing of the SelectOne on the wing of a Boeing 747 in Plattsburgh, New York. 

pressor now boasts 3D airfoil geometries as 

well as improved aerodynamics and airfoil 

surface texture. The high-pressure turbine incorporates 

new materials and sealing systems. 

MTU has adapted its low-pressure turbine 

accordingly. “Our specialists optimized the 

airfoil angle of attack of the stage three turbine 

stator,” explains Werner Striegl, the 

V2500 technical program manager. The 

German engine manufacturer not only shares 

in the development and manufacture of 

SelectOne but, as the globally leading 

V2500 maintenance provider, also assumes 

full repair responsibility. 

Before the modified engine was allowed to 

fly, it needed to demonstrate its reliability on 

the test stand. During the preliminary phase, 

three engine tests were on the agenda: the 

performance operability test took place in 

April 2007 at MTU’s Munich facility to verify 

the functionality of the complete SelectOne 

engine. “For flight approval, we simulated 

cycles on the test stand,” explains Kurt 

Scheidt, who at MTU is responsible for commercial 

engine testing. “A cycle lasts 10 to 

15 minutes, as we’re mainly testing at the 

maximum loads occurring during takeoff and 

landing.” Upon completion of several weeks 

of test stand trials, the engine was stripped 

and inspected. Additionally, a telemetry test 

and an endurance test took place in the U.S. 

at partner Pratt & Whitney’s test facility. 

After the ground testing wrapped up successfully 

in October 2007, the engine was 

flown to America in the cargo bay of a commercial 

transport. At Plattsburgh in New 

York State, testing on the flying testbed was 

scheduled. On the wing of a Boeing 747, the 

IAE engine completed 45 flying hours in 

seven flights and proved to be in perfect 

shape. “The targets were all met and the performance 

capabilities attested to in the 

ground runs were confirmed,” Scheidt summarizes. 

The technically difficult installation 

of the test engine for the flight trials was 

assisted by MTU instrumentation specialists 

on-site. 500 tapping points needed to be 

crammed into the engine, no easy job even 

for the experts. Says Scheidt: “The whole 

complex sensor system had to be accommodated 

in a manner such that it was sure not 

to interfere with flightworthiness.” 

The meticulously accurate preparations made 

by all involved paid off: Following successfully 

completed flight testing, SelectOne obtained 

approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation 

Administration (FAA) in December 2007. 

But that left the partners little time to relax; 

already in February this year SelectOne 

underwent further flight trials, this time in 

the sky above Toulouse in the south of 

France, on the wing of an Airbus A320. 

“We’re right on schedule,” Scheidt explains. 

Certification by the European authorities is 

expected in May this year, in time for the ILA 

International Aerospace Exhibition in Berlin. 

That paves the way for launching production 

in summer. IAE’s first SelectOne production 

engine will go to IndiGo Airlines. The 

Indian carrier will be equipping a hundred 

Airbus A320 family aircraft with the 

SelectOne build standard, becoming the 

launch customer of the optimized bestseller. 


Leo Müllenholz 

+49 89 1489-3173 



www.mtu.de/108V2500_E 

The SelectOne on MTU Aero Engines’ test facility in Munich. In February 2008 the SelectOne made its first flight in Toulouse – on the wings of an A320. 


11

The fine art 

of patching 

By Denis Dilba 

A little less than a year ago, there would have been no doubt about it: Blade-integrated disks (blisks) 

with heavily damaged blades need to be scrapped and replaced with new parts. But things have 

changed; MTU has since developed a technologically sophisticated repair process called patching to 

give injured complex blisks for the Eurofighter’s EJ200 engine a new lease on life. 

“We would have loved to repair these components 

in the past,” says Dirk Eckart from 

MTU’s repair team, “only there just wasn’t any 

established, approved blisk repair procedure.” 

So having a repaired low-pressure turbine 

blisk again in the air, on an aircraft flying at 

almost Mach 2 high in the skies over Germany, 

in itself is a first in global aviation. The engineer 

and his colleagues last December handed 

the first patched blisk over to the German 

Air Force. That followed on the heels of 

extensive repair development and validation 

tests to ensure the repaired component was 

unconditionally fit for reuse. 

In patching, the damaged portion of the engine 

blade is first cut off by a fully automated 

process. Then, using a tungsten plasma 

arc welding process especially developed for 

the purpose, the replacement parts for the 

sectioned blades are joined to the blisk. In a 

final step, the repair specialists use an adaptive 

milling process to restore the blade to its 

proper geometry. 

“All of this didn’t just fall into our laps,” 

Eckart remembers. “We had been working 

for years on a repair technique of the type, 

you bet.” Being Germany’s industrial lead 

company for practically all engines flown by 

the country’s services, MTU repairs most of 

the German Air Force’s engines. “So, naturally, 

we had to develop a repair technique 

for the blisks, too, as they arrived on the 

scene,” Eckart reports. No mean feat, considering 

that the blades, being integrally 

joined with the disk, fall into safety class 1 

applying to rotating components. 

Conventional approaches were unsuitable 

for the repair of these integrally joined parts. 

So after years of painstaking detail work, 

Eckart and his team improved the plasma 

welding process to achieve an optimum weld 

Tungsten plasma arc welding ensures high-quality 

welds. 

< An EJ200 blisk undergoing a contour check after 

blending. 

Removal of milling marks and blending into the adjacent contour. 

quality. “We managed to enhance process 

stability by using effective inert gas shielding, 

so that we finally got the quality we need,” 

Eckart explains. The repaired part just about 

duplicates the quality of the virgin part, 

regardless of how many blades on a blisk are 

repaired. Also remember that patching realizes 

savings, the repair using the new technique 

costing substantially less than a new 

blisk. 

“We’ve already obtained approval for the 

EJ200’s second low-pressure compressor 

stage,” according to Eckart. “That for the first 

stage will be obtained before the year is out.” 

From the military arena, the new technology 

will sooner or later spill over into the company’s 

commercial programs. Here, too, the 

use of blisks is rapidly growing. “In newly 

developed engines, that technology is largely 

dominating,” Eckart says. That’s also where 

he sees great future potential. Patching 

promises to greatly enhance the cost-effectiveness 

of aircraft fleets. He’s sure that 

“whenever inquiries come our way from the 

commercial scene, we’ll be happy to go to 

work and demonstrate our repair expertise.” 


Dirk Eckart 

+49 89 1489-8338 



www.mtu.de/108Patching_E 

PECM – globally top 

To remove metals and also weld material 

from blisks, MTU is developing a 

further high-tech method, dubbed 

pulsed electro chemical machining, or 

PECM for short. It accurately removes 

material by anodic metal dissolution 

during electrolysis. 

PECM does not require mechanical 

contact between tool and workpiece. 

That obviates the transfer of forces 

during the processing of blisk blades. 

In the process, the gap widths between 

the workpiece and the tool are extremely 

narrow. The material removed 

corresponds practically exactly to the 

shape of the electrode, because the 

flow lines can essentially extend only 

normal to the surface. Since with gap 

widths as small as 10 μm to 100 μm, 

the exchange of electrolyte by flow no 

longer works, mechanical pulsing is 

superimposed on the downfeed. 

The technique comes recommended 

by its high cost-effectiveness and is 

characterized by residual stress-free 

material removal, gentle fillets and 

smooth surfaces. 


13

A new brand is born 

The time to invade the supply business could 

hardly be more favorable; the market is 

evolving at breakneck speed, original equipment 

manufacturers (OEMs) are placing 

tough demands on high-tech products and 

cost-efficiency, increasingly unloading noncore 

activities and betting heavily on flexibility. 

The prospects to succeed in this market 

are promising. Aware of the opportunities, 

By Thorsten Rienth 

Know-how transfer is the buzzword in the booming supply business. Germany’s leading 

engine manufacturer is taking off with a new brand, MTU Aero Solutions, to provide advanced 

technology solutions for cross-industry applications. The new brand is targeting not only the 

aviation industry but moreover any other metal processing industry that can benefit from the 

company’s long years of experience and expertise reflected in a wide array of offerings for engineering, 

testing, parts manufacturing, and surface technology applications. 

MTU went ahead and launched a third brand, 

alongside MTU Aero Engines and MTU 

Maintenance. MTU Aero Solutions will debut 

at this year’s ILA International Aerospace 

Exhibition, which will take place in Berlin 

from May 27 to June1, presenting itself as an 

independent brand benefiting from the vast 

experience accumulated by MTU Aero 

Engines. Organizationally and optically, MTU 

Aero Solutions will be solidly integrated in 

MTU’s group of brands but do business as an 

independent entity. The image sets created 

for the new brand will clearly identify it as 

being associated with MTU but still convey a 

distinctive note that sets it apart with its individual 

specialties and capabilities. 

For customers, the trade name reflects a 

comprehensive performance spectrum, 

where “Aero” accentuates the decades of 

experience, expertise and reliability that 

MTU has demonstrated as a partner on innovative 

aviation programs, while “Solutions” 

underscores the individual service approach 

to benefit customers. 

The new business activity is ideally equipped 

to face the challenges ahead. “Considering 

that in-house we’re practicing all of the techniques 

involved in the manufacturing cycle, it 

would only seem natural to offer also selected 

parts of it,” explains MTU sales consultant 

Hans-Christian Melzer. The development 

work pursued in the past has long since been 

tested and certified, and that spares customers 

tedious certification procedures. This 

results in a win-win situation, where customers 

profit from MTU’s many decades of 

experience, its expertise and its innovation 

potential in the fields of engine development, 

manufacturing and testing and tailor-made 

top-quality components are shipped to them 

from Munich in a timely manner to secure 

their technological lead. For the MTU Group, 

in turn, supplier activities provide workload 

for the development departments, test facilities 

and production lines, improving the company’s 

cost effectiveness. 

Launch customer of MTU’s new offering is 

Japan’s IHI Corporation, which has ordered 

intermediate-pressure compressor disks to 

go into Rolls-Royce Trent 700 and RB211 

engines. For openers, the IHI contract is far 

from shabby, involving double-digit million 

euros in sales. Next came a manufacturing 

contract for low-pressure turbine rotor disks 

for General Electric’s GEnx next-generation 

Formula 1 advertising: Pit stop ... ... aviation high-tech for other industries. 

... spectacular overtaking maneuvers ... 

engine. Further orders, especially from customers 

in the Far East, are in the pipeline. “You 

can tell we’re in demand,” Melzer enthuses. 

Aviation will remain MTU Aero Solutions’ core 

market. But already it has become apparent 

that MTU’s leading-edge technology is in 

demand also in other industries. Companies 

unable to equal MTU’s practices and standards 

can avail themselves of MTU’s aviation 

expertise. In the medium term, the ensuing 

transfer of know-how will be advantageous 

especially for the gas turbine industry 

through, for instance, high-quality surface 

treatment techniques; long-term, it should 

pay dividends also for other steel and metal 

processing industries. 

“Generally, MTU Aero Solutions will bear 

watching by anybody involved in metals, and 

in items that rotate very fast and must safely 

sustain enormous heat,” Melzer summarizes. 

Globally, with its ambitious Made in Germany 

quality mark, MTU Aero Engines will be able 

to quickly and reliably resolve problems in 

aviation and cross-industry applications. 


Hans-Christian Melzer 

+49 89 1489-6599 



www.mtu.de/108AeroSolutions_E 

14 MTU Global 

15

Desert boom town 

By Andreas Spaeth 

More than 40 years ago, Dubai on the Persian Gulf was a sleepy cluster of whitewashed houses and dust roads. 

Its people subsisted mainly on pearl fishing, until oil was found in the desert sand. Since 1966, the region has been 

booming, much of the growth being driven by Dubai’s state-owned Emirates Airline. One of the world’s most dynamic 

carriers, Emirates boasts phenomenal growth sustained by a large fleet of aircraft that will soon include 58 Airbus 

A380s, making it the largest operator of these mega-transports globally. 

The airline’s success story dates back to the 

inauguration of Dubai International Airport 

in 1959. The airport had a 1,800-meter runway 

and until the mid-sixties operated a 

measly six intercontinental services a week. 

The airlines operating out of Dubai at the 

time included BOAC, MEA, Gulf Air and Iran 

Air. By 1969, nine airlines served the desert 

town, linking it to 20 destinations. For decades, 

most airliners flying Europe – Asia 

routes stopped over here just for refueling. 

This lasted until the early nineties, when the 

advent of the long-range Boeing 747-400 

obviated the need for these fuel stops. 

In 1985, Emirates appeared on the scene. It 

was the first Dubai-based airline, and in the 

decades ahead was to see breathtaking 

growth. “That was the only time we received 

state aid, which was ten million U.S. dollars 

to start operations, but that was it,” emphasized 

Tim Clark, Emirates’ president, who 

has been with the airline ever since it was 

launched. The Arab upstart began operations 

on October 25, 1985, flying to Istanbul, 

Mumbai, Delhi and Karachi with three 

leased Boeing 727-200s and later adding 

two Airbus A300s leased from Pakistan. In 

1987, first European flights were launched, 

including a Dubai – Istanbul – Frankfurt route 

that is served three times a week. 

When the other airports on the Gulf lost substantial 

traffic and revenue as the European 

and Asian airlines ceased their fuel stops, 

Dubai reversed its course in 1995, pinning 

its hope on tourism. At that time, airport 

traffic stagnated at around seven million 

passengers a year. Today, that number has 

grown to 33 million passengers and for 

2010, the target is 60 million. Nearly all of 

the 17.5 million Emirates passengers carried 

in fiscal 2006/07 departed from or flew via 

Dubai, with the airline until spring 2008 also 

offering a daily Hamburg – New York flight 

to extend its Dubai services. 

16 Customers + Partners 

17

In early 2008, Emirates operated 113 aircraft 

serving over 100 destinations in 62 countries 

on six continents. The highly profitable Arab 

airline is considered the bellwether of airline 

growth. Presently, it has far over 100 new aircraft 

on order, among them 58 copies of the 

A380 mega-transport. That makes it the 

largest A380 customer. The Dubai airline in 

2000 became the launch customer for the 

world’s largest commercial airliner and has 

increased its A380 order ever since. It will 

take delivery of its first mega-transport in 

summer this year, the first commercial A380 

to be powered by GP7000 engines, in which 

MTU has a development and production 

stake of over 22 percent. The German engine 

manufacturer holds responsibility for the lowpressure 

turbine, parts of the high-pressure 

turbine and the turbine center frame. 

Its A380 fleet will be the backbone of the still 

expanding Arab airline. The mega-transport 

is expected to fly ultra-long routes, say to New 

York or Sydney, as well as high-density regional 

routes like ones in India. These plans 

will make Emirates the only A380 operator to 

use the aircraft in three different versions: 

as a three-class 517-seat and 489-seat configuration, 

respectively, and a two-class 600seat 

version for shorter hauls. There is little 

doubt Dubai will soon be the world’s largest 

A380 airport. At the new terminal complex, 

to be inaugurated in May, seven A380-friendly 

slots are already in place. At Concourse 3, 

to be completed in 2010, 18 of the 20 gates 

will be able to accommodate the mega-transport, 

permitting passengers to board concurrently 

through three bridges leading into the 

main and upper decks. To maintain the mammoth 

aircraft, Emirates has inaugurated one 

of the world’s largest maintenance centers at 

the Dubai airport: At its northern end, no less 

than seven maintenance hangars and a 

painting hangar have sprung up, each boasting 

11,500 square meters of floor space, or 

more than two soccer pitches taken together. 

Evolving into one of the most significant traffic 

hubs globally, the emirate profits especially 

from its geographical location: Living within a 

radius of 6,400 kilometers, or about eight flying 

hours, are 3.5 billion people, which is 

more than half the world population. Current 

numbers are impressive: Dubai’s gross 

domestic product has been growing an aver- 

Dubai’s new terminal: At Concourse 3, to be completed in 2010, three bridges will permit passengers to board the A380’s main and upper decks concurrently. 

age 16 percent over the past several years, 

airport traffic volume grew over 19 percent 

in 2007, and Emirates had to cope with 30 

percent growth last year. 

The flourishing airline is betting not only on 

gateway traffic, which amounts to about 40 

percent of revenue at the home base, but 

also on what Tim Clark calls the Dubai factor, 

which is the glamor radiated by this artificial 

city in the desert. Emirates has a particularly 

strong presence in Germany, with Frankfurt, 

Munich and Düsseldorf served several times 

a day and Hamburg once a day from the 

desert hub. High on the wish list also are 

Stuttgart and Berlin, home to the ILA Inter- 

Emirates will take delivery of the first Airbus A380 powered by Engine Alliance GP7000 engines in 

summer 2008. 

national Aerospace Exhibition. Emirates also 

was among the sponsors of the 2006 soccer 

world championship in Germany, and its logo 

is seen on the shirts of first-league soccer 

team Hamburger SV. 

In terms of passenger service, Emirates is 

among the leading providers in the business, 

as confirmed time and again by a plurality of 

frequent flyer honors. Admittedly, amidst the 

airline’s furious growth, it isn’t always easy to 

keep a steady level of service throughout. Of 

the almost 22,000 airline employees, only a 

diminutive part hails from Dubai proper or 

from the Arab region generally. Overall, staff 

is being recruited from some 70 different 

countries, which is about par for the booming 

states on the Persian Gulf, especially 

among their airlines. That makes Emirates a 

globally oriented airline indeed. 


Heidrun Moll 

+49 89 1489-3537 

For further information on this article go to: 

www.mtu.de/108Emirates_E 


19

A veritable power pack 

You could hardly tell the MTR390 Enhanced’s prowess from the size of it: Being a mere 44 centimeters wide, 68 centimeters 

high and 108 centimeters long, it still delivers an enormous 1,094 kilowatts, or 1,487 horsepower. The engine 

is the uprated version of the MTR390 powering the Eurocopter Tiger, and the most advanced engine in its peer group. 

In a twin-engine configuration, it provides the French-German support and antitank helicopter with the power it needs. 

“The Enhanced version packs a tremendous 

wallop and is a big technology leap ahead,” 

explains MTU Aero Engines’ program director 

Peter Harster. The turboshaft engine delivers 

an extra 14 percent power for hot and high 

missions compared with the basic version, 

as desired by Spain, the new customer, and 

that makes it welcome also in temperate climates. 

“This is where the helicopter’s extra 

power helps it carry more payload,” Harster 

By Bernd Bundschu 

says. Such benefits also sold France and 

Germany on the Enhanced version. Of their 

171 MTR390 engines each has on order, the 

French will take delivery of 80 Enhanced versions, 

and the Germans a lesser number of 

10, plus 24 on option. The European procurement 

agency OCCAR late last year inked 

the contract to that effect. 

“The fact that Germany, too, has opted for 

the more powerful Tiger engines is a major 

milestone in the MTR390 program,” enthuses 

Clemens Linden, managing director of both 

MTR and MTRI. The latter is an associate 

company of the MTR390 engine consortium 

and in partnership with Spain’s Industria de 

Turbo Propulsores (ITP) coordinates the development, 

manufacture and support of the 

Enhanced engine. 

The MTR390-E has something else to recommend 

it: It’s in part identical to the basic version 

and modifying the latter into an 

Enhanced version poses few problems. Since 

the engine-to-airframe interface is the same 

for both MTR390 versions, the Tiger weapon 

One of the last operations: checking the torque of 

the power turbine bolts. 

system can readily be re-engined with the 

upgrade. “Thus we will be able to offer an 

upgrade kit to the more powerful version as 

a major modification,” Linden adds. 

This applies similarly to the engine control 

unit, for which MTU is redesigning the hardware 

and operating system to suit the 

MTR390-E. “We’re using electronic components 

of the latest generation. That makes 

the new unit appreciably lighter in weight 

and safer without adding to its size. Also, it 

remains compatible with the old version,” 

explains Dr. Andreas Kreiner, MTU chief engineer 

for the MTR390’s control system. 

Overall, MTU’s stake in the MTR390-E program 

includes the combustor, high-pressure 

turbine and accessories. Its share in the program 

amounts to about one-third. Additionally, 

MTU’s Munich facility performs rig testing 

and engine thermal paint testing. 

The Enhanced version made its first run last 

year at a Turbomeca test facility. At its 

Munich facility, MTU Aero Engines has been 

tooling up for production since January. 

Plans are to ship the first production 

MTR390-E to Spain in September 2009; all in 

all, the Spanish will take delivery of 50 units. 


Peter Harster 

+49 89 1489-3309 



www.mtu.de/108MTR390_E 

Installed in the test bed’s quick-change frame the 

MTR390 is being prepared for the acceptance test run. 

The MTR390 was developed by MTR, a 

consortium including MTU Aero 

Engines, Turbomeca and Rolls-Royce. 

Of the basic version, the MTR390-2C, 

238 copies have been delivered so far: 

106 to Germany, 67 to France, 51 to 

Australia, and 14 to Spain. 


21 

MTR390 

In parallel with the ongoing production 

in Munich, the operator nations are 

presently setting up the necessary 

repair capacities. In Germany, repairs 

will be performed at MTU Aero 

Engines’ Munich facility starting 

September, while the French engines 

are supported by Atelier Industriel 

Aéronautique (AIA) in Bordeaux. 

Additionally, since November 2007, a 

certified repair shop has been up and 

running in Bankstown near Sydney, 

Australia. 

Maintenance is pursued according to 

the on-condition maintenance principle, 

where the engines undergo regular 

pre- and post-flight inspections, 

plus boroscoping every 400 flight 

hours. In the field, the engines are 

consistently monitored and sent out 

for repair if indicated by alerts 

received from the built-in monitoring 

unit for which MTU is responsible.

Upon delivery of the flying testbed engine to 

Marshall Aerospace in England’s Cambridge 

late in 2007, the EPI Europrop International 

consortium at the end of February was 

pleased to announce further achievements: 

Right on schedule, MTU has shipped the last 

of the four engines to power the first flight of 

the A400M prototype to Airbus in Spain’s 

Seville, where the military airlifter undergoes 

final assembly. Around that time, TP400-D6 

engines logged the 1,000 hour mark on the 

ground test stands across Europe. Also delivered 

on the dot was the control unit software 

The TP400-D6 wins the race: Airbus Military will 

equip the A400M with this engine. 

Milestones 

By Martina Vollmuth 

The TP400-D6 program is building momentum: Since November last year, the engine to 

power the A400M military transport has been passing one milestone after another. 

for the integration tests on the iron bird at 

Airbus. If all goes according to plan, the first 

military airlifter will take off for its maiden 

flight this summer. 

Meanwhile at MTU Aero Engines in Ludwigsfelde, 

preparations are underway full steam 

for the final assembly of the production 

engines. This is where the TP400-D6’s sole 

final assembly line will be operated. “Also, 

we’re seriously looking into the maintenance 

of engines in the field,” MTU CEO Egon Behle 

explains. MTU is desirous to provide the 

MTU presents the first TP400-D6 component – the 

intermediate-pressure compressor. It makes its first 

run in Munich in end-November. 

German Air Force with all possible support 

also on that program. Its credentials for the 

job are years of fruitful experience under the 

industry-military cooperative model of engine 

maintenance, according to Behle. 

The TP400-D6 is put through its paces and successfully 

passes its first run in MTU’s new test facility in 

Ludwigsfelde. 

Certification testing starts: At MTU an engine is 

assembled for comprehensive ground tests. 

In March 2008 the flying test bed, a Hercules C-130, is equipped with a TP400-D6 at Marshall Aerospace in 

Cambridge in England. 

2003 2004 

2005 2006 2007 2008 

Nearing flight testing: In end-November the TP400-D6 

intended for the flying test bed is being readied for 

dispatch at MTU. 


Gerhard Bähr 

+49 89 1489-8542 


www.mtu.de/108TP400_E 

The first shipset for the A400M’s maiden flight is 

ready in end-February, and the four engines are 

delivered to the A400M final assembly line in Spain’s 

Seville. 

22 Products + Services 

23

Thrust for 

Saudi Arabia 

By Patrick Hoeveler 

Breakthrough in the non-European market: The Eurofighter Typhoon has scored its second 

export deal winning a contract from Saudi Arabia. The kingdom ordered 72 aircraft for which 

the Eurojet consortium, which has Avio, ITP, MTU Aero Engines and Rolls-Royce as partners, 

will deliver 144 EJ200 engines. These have considerable MTU content. Worth billions, the 

contract is hoped to have a knock-on effect triggering further sales of the combat aircraft in 

the global market. 

“We have a lot riding on that contract, just 

looking at the sales volume of the initial 

order, which runs around 300 million euros,” 

explains Klaus Günther, EJ200 program 

director at MTU. The initial order includes 

spare engines and support services. After 

that, follow-on orders are expected to come 

in, for instance for further replacement 

engines, spare parts and repair work. MTU 

shares in these according to its role in the 

EJ200: Germany’s leading engine manufacturer 

is responsible for 33 percent of the 

EJ200’s development and 30 percent of its 

production. The German company is manufacturing 

the high-pressure and low-pressure 

compressors and provides the digital 

engine control and monitoring unit 

(DECMU). At MTU, about 600 people are 

working on the EJ200 program. 

24 Products + Services 

25

The first EJ200 engines will be delivered in 

2009; at MTU, component production is 

already underway. The engines will be the 

Tranche 2 standard. Most significant innovation 

over the 363 Tranche 1 copies delivered 

to date is the DECMU: So far, each EJ200 

came with a control unit and an airframemounted 

monitoring unit for both engines. 

“Now we have combined control and monitoring 

units in a single box,” Günther explains. 

“This arrangement cuts costs and saves airframe 

space for other applications, like 

avionics.” The highly-complex high-tech system 

combines the entirety of control and 

monitoring functions of the engine, which 

when reheated delivers a thrust of 90 kilonewtons. 

The DECMU weighs in at just about 

13 kilograms and is designed to meet a plurality 

of criteria. One of the most demanding 

of these is that the electronics should work 

faultlessly within a -40 °C to +125 °C temperature 

range. 

For service with the Al Quwwat al Jawwiya al 

Malakhiah as Sa’udiya (Royal Saudi Air 

Force), the EJ200 will need no modifications, 

according to Günther. The sand ingestion 

test, a standard requirement in the certifica- 

26 

Products + Services 

The DECMU is fitted to the EJ200 at MTU Aero Engines in Munich. 

tion procedure, was passed with a comfortable 

margin. Günther says: “The EJ200 is 

ready for desert missions ‘as is’. Factored 

into its development has been flying experience 

accumulated with the Tornado engine 

in Saudi Arabia, where the RB199 has been 

in service since 1986.” Nor are the Munich 

engineers strangers to the desert kingdom in 

the commercial engine arena. Günther 

reports: “MTU maintains stable relationships 

with Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabian Airlines, for 

one, counts among the major clients of 

MTU’s maintenance segment.” 

The positive experience the Saudis have had 

with the Panavia Tornado jet and the Turbo- 

Union RB199 engine may explain why they 

opted for the Eurofighter Typhoon. With the 

Saudis, as with the British Royal Air Force, 

the combat jet is to support the Tornado in 

its air defense role. “This the world’s most 

advanced and capable weapon system is the 

logical choice for the purpose,” says the MTU 

program director. 

Program status 

The EJ200 final assembly lines in the four 

Eurojet partner countries Germany, the 

United Kingdom, Italy and Spain are running 

flat out. Delivery of the 519 Tranche 2 engines 

began in mid-2007 and is scheduled to 

conclude in spring 2012. The engines for the 

Saudi Arabian customer are being produced 

in parallel. Following an initial warm-up 

phase, final engine assembly will be shifted 

to Saudi Arabia. 

“Meanwhile, the combat jet has been in service 

for several years and reports of its performance 

have been positive throughout,” 

according to MTU program director Günther. 

The pilots of the four participating countries 

A Tornado of the Royal Saudi Air Force. 

and the first export customer, Austria, are 

happy with the performance and reliability of 

the turbofan engine, which enables supersonic 

flight even with the afterburner off. 

But there’s still room to improve. Currently, 

concept talks are underway with NETMA 

(NATO Eurofighter & Tornado Management 

Agency) regarding options to update the 

engine. The emphasis is on reducing lifecycle 

costs and boosting thrust, with up to 30 percent 

considered feasible. Agility, too, can be 

enhanced. Günther feels that “thrust vector- 

ing continues to be an intriguing option.” 

Earlier, in the mid-1990s, ITP and MTU had 

run successful tests using a vectored thrust 

nozzle. Latest analyses indicate that thrust 

vectoring would not require structural modifications 

to the aircraft. 


Klaus Günther 

+49 89 1489-3308 



www.mtu.de/108EJ200_E 

27

“Eurofighter Typhoon – 

the German Air Force’s system 

of the future” 

The Eurofighter is entering its next procurement phase, Tranche 2. In the German Air Force, 

two wings are already accumulating operational experience, testing the aircraft’s reliability, 

strengths and challenges, and the role it plays in the Air Force’s combat readiness. We interviewed 

Lieutenant General Klaus-Peter Stieglitz. The Chief of Staff of the German Air Force is 

a pilot himself and regularly flies Europe’s most advanced and capable fighter aircraft. 

General, now that the Eurofighter has been 

flown a while by the Air Force, what is your 

experience with this aircraft? 

The Eurofighter has been flying with the Air 

Force for nearly four years. It has appreciably 

enhanced the Air Force’s capabilities. Its 

major advances are the exceptionally high 

thrust-to-weight ratio it provides, its unique 

agility, and the range and precision of its 

weapons, to name just a few. 

We’ve also learned, however, that its many 

computers, especially when operated in 

flight, have added to the aircraft’s complexity 

compared with the Tornado weapon system. 

This is a formidable challenge. The young 

officers piloting this combat aircraft not only 

need to fly well, they moreover need to know 

a great deal about the management of complex 

systems. 

How is the EJ200 engine doing in the field? 

The engine you people designed and built 

proves to be one of the Eurofighter’s outstanding 

components. The aircraft’s deployment 

characteristics, such as the agility and 

climb it needs to survive and win out in all 

scenarios, in a sense make this engine the 

centerpiece of the combat aircraft. 

In the fighter’s deployment, will there be other 

or additional roles the Eurofighter will have to 

fill down the road? 

For the Air Force, the Eurofighter will no 

longer be solely the fighter in the classical 

sense of the term but moreover will additionally 

provide offensive operations capability. In 

other words, in battle the Eurofighter will be 

able not only to maintain or gain air superiority 

but also fend off enemy attacks on the 

ground and precisely engage targets day and 

night, in any weather and at any distance 

while avoiding collateral damage. 

Do you believe the Eurofighter is adequately 

equipped for future missions, or is there an 

apparent need for an update here and there? 

The Eurofighter provides the Air Force with a 

fourth-generation combat aircraft which in 

terms of operational versatility, capability and 

technological enhancement potential is presently 

unrivaled, at least in Europe. 

But still, any type of military technology 

needs continuous upgrading and improving. 

A Eurofighter of fighter squadron 73 “Steinhoff” in Laage in flight with the afterburner on. 

The Eurofighter, for one, has been conceived 

exactly along that line, considering that the 

development, production and deployment 

phases overlap. Insights gained in deployment, 

for instance, can be fed back directly 

into the continuous improvement of the aircraft. 

What significance does the Air Force attach to 

the procurement of the Tranche 3 Eurofighter? 

The Eurofighter is the Air Force’s eminent 

system of the future. It is not until Tranche 3 

is deployed that the makeover of the service’s 

airborne weapon systems will be complete. 

As this combat aircraft is being phased 

in, the inventory of older combat aircraft that 

are much more expensive to maintain is substantially 

reduced. Sometime around 2017, 

the Air Force will have a total of 180 Eurofighters 

and 85 Tornados at its disposal to 

fulfill its mandate. 

It is only if and when we introduce the Eurofighter 

in the scope envisioned that we are 

able to reduce the inventory of older combat 

aircraft while further improving our capabilities. 

For the Air Force, procurement of 

Tranche 3 is a must. 

Generally, how in the next decades do you 

envisage the role of the manned combat aircraft 

versus the unmanned aerial vehicle? 

Unmanned aerial vehicles will not be able to 

completely replace manned aircraft. Rather, 

they will to a certain extent appropriately 

complement them in the aggregation of weapon 

systems used in aerial warfare. Manned 

aircraft will be available only in limited numbers, 

having to concurrently cover ever more 

potential multi-role deployment options. This 

is where unmanned systems provide relief 

and unlock a new dimension in capability 

value. UAVs deployed to that effect will become 

an indispensable tool in the projection 

of air power. 

What is your personal experience piloting the 

Eurofighter? 

It’s a totally electrifying experience to fly it. I 

envy the young pilots beginning their Air 

Force careers on this aircraft. 


Odilo Mühling 

+49 89 1489-2698 


www.mtu.de/108Interview_E 

28 Interview + Report 29

Pilotless aircraft 

By Andreas Spaeth 

The joke is as old as the autopilot: Sitting alone in the cockpit of a modern aircraft are a pilot and a 

dog. The pilot is there to feed the dog, and the dog is there to bite the pilot as soon as he tries to 

touch anything. Scenarios like that aren’t the last word in aircraft automation, however. Experts are 

confident that air traffic is moving relentlessly toward full automation and abolition of the cockpit. You 

may wonder whether passengers will go along with that. 

“The question is not whether pilotless aircraft 

are coming, but when. We’ll have to 

face it,” says Denis Chagnon, a spokesperson 

with the International Civil Aviation Organization 

(ICAO) in Montréal. In Europe and the 

United States, research activities are bustling: 

The airliner-to-be finds its way across 

the sky more or less on its own, with no pilot 

onboard, and is monitored and controlled, if 

necessary, from the ground. Such capability 

is expected to make flying more efficient, environmentally 

friendlier and safer. 

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) flying military 

missions are not new, being used as 

robots to patrol outside of controlled airspace. 

In the civil arena, UAVs are in a first 

step supposed to assist civil science in tasks 

such as environmental monitoring, volcano 

observation and atmospheric research. For 

such tasks, pilotless aircraft benefit from their 

ability to stay aloft longer than their manned 

counterparts. 

In Europe, researchers are examining the 

utility of civil UAVs within a new air traffic 

control system: The European Defense 

Agency (EDA) is presently pursuing a roadmap 

study to assess the compatibility of civil 

UAV missions with concurrent manned aircraft 

operations in the crammed European 

airspace. A consortium of 12 leading European 

aerospace companies is trying to find 

ways to implement such coexistence no later 

than by year-end 2015. 

Simultaneously, the European Commission is 

pursuing a research project that is dubbed 

Innovative Future Air Transport System 

(IFATS) and coordinated by the French Onera 

research organization. Sharing in it also is 

the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The 

IFATS concept envisions the formation of a 

new global airspace management system 

that computes four-dimensional flight routes 

for all air traffic participants. “That’s a revolutionary 

system considering there’re no 

pilots in the aircraft and no controllers, both 

being replaced by control systems on the 

ground,” explains Onera’s Claude Le Tallec. A 

substantial benefit it affords is improved utilization 

of the airspace through automated 

control of the aircraft in all flight phases from 

taxiing out from the airport of departure to 

parking the aircraft at the destination airport. 

The IFATS team is also looking into the estimated 

costs of a pilotless airliner: Development 

investments would run around 525 

million euros and purchase of a 230-passenger 

airliner almost 38 million euros. Omission 

of the cockpit would provide room for 

ten additional passengers. In terms of efficiency 

improvement, each aircraft could fly 

80 hours longer per year than a conventional 

jet transport and use up to 3,000 liters less 

fuel per hour. 

As yet, there’re many unknowns in these revolutionary 

simulations: precautions must be 

in place, for instance, to keep control of the 

aircraft from being criminally manipulated 

from the ground. The most critical question, 

however, involves the passengers. Will these 

people trust an automated system? While the 

Driverless train: Germany’s first fully automated 

subway has been in operation in Nuremberg since 

2008. 

use of driverless subway trains has become 

commonplace in many cities, many passengers 

of high-speed intercity trains may begin 

to hesitate knowing there is no driver up 

front. A German poll indicated that with a 

pilotless aircraft, 33 percent of the passengers 

will not come aboard in the first place, 

and 48 percent only provided a pilot is onboard 

to monitor the computers. Only 19 percent 

of the respondents said they wouldn’t 

mind traveling without a pilot. 

Nonetheless, there’re facts speaking for the 

pilotless aircraft: Demonstrably, many flight 

catastrophes are attributable to human 

error, and the Onera experts and others are 

confident that human error is exactly what 

can practically be eliminated by automated 

aircraft. 


Heidrun Moll 

+49 89 1489-3537 


www.mtu.de/108UAV_E 

30 Interview + Report 

31

32 Anecdote 

Perfectionists 

in the sky 

By Robert Wouters 

As a sports highlight, the championship game of professional American football, known as 

the Super Bowl, is impossible to upstage. Each year it enthuses 75,000 people in the stadium 

and some 100 million fans on TV worldwide. Nonetheless, early in February, Glendale, 

Arizona, hosted another icon of American showbiz when the Blue Angels, the U.S. Navy’s legendary 

aerobatic team, started this year’s season with a flyover of the Bowl. By November, 

the Blues will have participated in well over 40 air shows in the United States. 

When they fly their complete routine, the six 

Angels will be aloft for well over an hour. 

Last year, they amazed some 15 million people. 

In all, since the squadron was formed in 

1946, that number meanwhile totals some 

427 million. To have the show unfold in its 

incredible precision, it needs preparing accurately 

and executing with maximum concentration 

on the job. Each performance is 

taped and subsequently analyzed. For a safe 

airshow, the aircraft need to be in technically 

perfect shape. Owing to the torturing 

loads encountered by the aircraft during 

flight maneuvers, the ground crew will have 

to support the jets more extensively than 

standard equipment. 

Since 1987, the squadron has been flying 

McDonnell Douglas F/A-18A/B Hornets. 

These are equipped with two General 

Electric F404 engines, in which MTU has 

had a role since early 2007. For the F404, 

the German engine maker is manufacturing 

the high-pressure compressor spool. For the 

successor model F414, which so far finds 

use only on the Super Hornet, MTU is also 

manufacturing the shrouds of the two turbines. 

33

Opening the show: Fat Albert, a Hercules C-130, is 

taking off. 

Contrails in the sky 

At this time, twelve of the jets are on active 

duty, of which ten are single-seat F/A-18As 

for the show and two are two-seater F/A-18Bs 

for VIP flights. The Hornets are practically in 

production configuration, except that the 

M61 Vulcan cannons were removed, and for 

better aircraft handling during inverted flight 

a spring has been added to the control stick. 

Arranged between the engines is a tank holding 

smoke oil. The oil is injected into the 

engines to create condensation trails in the 

sky to enhance the safety and orientation of 

the pilots. Also, contrails help spectators on 

the ground track the aircraft. 

With all its extreme maneuvers, the show 

invariably follows the same pattern. For optimum 

flying weather, visibility should be at 

least 5.5 kilometers and the cloud ceiling at 

least 2.5 kilometers. That’s when the Blues go 

the whole hog. Opening the show is a C-130 

Hercules, also known as Fat Albert, which 

Daredevil aerobatics thrill the crowds. 

34 Anecdote 

normally carries the ground crew and spare 

parts. When it takes off, its rocket bottles are 

a spectacular sight in the jet-assisted take 

off. Fat Albert gets airborne after a takeoff 

run of less than 500 meters, climbs to 300 

meters above the ground, flies a tour above 

the airfield and then lands again. 

Then the Hornets take off. The first four aircraft 

join in a 45 centimeter wingtip-tocanopy 

diamond formation. The Blues are 

renowned the world over for this stunt, never 

replicated by any other aerobatic team. The 

two other airplanes are the opposing solos, 

their first maneuver being the opposing knife 

edge pass when in low-level flight they rush 

directly toward each other to pass only a few 

meters apart. Next on the agenda are a plurality 

of other maneuvers. 

After a sneak pass, a solo aircraft roars 

across the runway merely 15 meters or so 

above the runway and accelerates to almost 

700 knots. In breathtaking succession, spectators 

then witness about 30 maneuvers. In 

the section high alpha pass the Hornets 

point their noses into the sky, sitting on their 

tails. Together, the six airplanes fly a roll in 

delta formation before four of them, in diamond 

formation, paint the signature of the 

formation into the sky, a stylized fleur-de-lis. 

In closing, the Blues return to the center of 

the airfield and fly over it simultaneously at 

different heights. After one more flyover in 

delta formation, the Hornets then separate 

and land. 

Roaring across the runway at low altitude. 

The United States’ best pilots 

After a greatly exciting history, the squadron 

is presently commanded by Kevin Mannix. It 

was formed by directive of Admiral Chester 

W. Nimitz on April 24, 1946, dubbed Navy 

Flight Exhibition Team. World War II ace 

Lieutenant Commander Roy “Butch” Voris 

was assigned to recruit its first pilots. Not an 

easy job, considering that even then, only 

the best were good enough. Passing muster 

were just a pair of pilots that together with 

Voris were then stationed on the Naval Air 

Station in Jacksonville, Florida. In June 1946, 

the trio flew their first exhibition on 

Grumman F6F Hellcats at the Southeastern 

Air Show in Jacksonville. Their first show, 

lasting about 17 minutes, included a number 

of formation flights. During the next several 

weeks, the squadron displayed its art at several 

locations in the United States. During a 

stay-over in New York City the squadron 

agreed on an official name, Blue Angels, 

probably with reference to a famous New 

York night club. 

Blue Angels pilots to this day remain among 

the best in the United States. They are stationed 

in Pensacola, Florida. From January to 

March they train at the Naval Air Facility in El 

Centro, California. That’s the place to go, 

too, for pilots wishing to join. Applicants are 

cycled through a grueling screening process 

with various training units. Fifteen of them 

are put on the short list to be selected by the 

squadron by roll-call vote for one of the few 

slots being vacated. For the 2008 flying season, 

four of them made it. Since the 

squadron’s inception, a total of 232 pilots 

and 32 flight leaders sat in the cockpits of 

the Blues. Their average age is 33. 

A tour of duty on the squadron lasts two 

years. There’s no special pay attached to it. 

Every pilot in the squadron is a member of 

the U.S. Navy or U.S. Marine Corps. He must 

have qualified for deck landings and logged 

at least 1,250 hours on jet aircraft. Aircraft 

Number 1 is reserved for the commanding 

officer (the “Boss”). He is named by the 

Chief of Naval Air Training. For credentials, 

he needs flying experience in excess of 

3,000 hours and must have commanded a jet 

aircraft squadron. Fat Albert is flown exclusively 

by Marines having qualified as Aircraft 

Commanders. In all, acceptance requirements 

are just as exacting as the formations 

being flown. 


Heidrun Moll 

+49 89 1489-3537 


www.mtu.de/108BlueAngels_E 

35

NEWS 

Major V2500 order 

from US Airways 

U.S.-based carrier US Airways has placed a 

major order worth some 884 million euros 

with International Aero Engines (IAE) to buy 

SelectOne engines for 78 A320 family aircraft, 

slated to be delivered this year. Along 

with the firm order, the airline placed options 

for another 75 aircraft. 

For MTU Aero Engines, the order translates 

Dream research 

44 partners from industry and research, a 

40-million-euro budget and a visionary name: 

ValiDation of Radical Engine Architecture 

SysteMs, or Dream for short, is a new 

European technology project dedicated to 

the development of novel engine concepts. 

One of the partners on that project is MTU 

Aero Engines. 

36 News 

into sales of approximately 100 million euros 

and the work to be performed under it is just 

about equivalent to a one-year V2500 engine 

workload. As one of the IAE co-founders, 

MTU holds a stake of about 11 percent in the 

V2500 and contributes the low-pressure 

turbine. The German engine manufacturer 

also had a major role in the development of 

the SelectOne build standard. 

The German engine manufacturer is leading 

one of five Dream part projects, dubbed 

Innovative Systems. Together with Volvo 

Aero and the Technical University of Graz, 

MTU will explore various turbine center 

frame configurations. The Active Turbine 

work package focuses on active clearance 

control. Partners are Magna Steyr and Vibro- 

Michael Schreyögg 

heads program 

management, 

defense programs 

Michael Schreyögg has been appointed 

senior vice president, program 

management, defense programs, effective 

February 1. In this function he 

succeeds Dr. Roland Fischer, who left 

the company. 

Michael Schreyögg 

After having worked at MTU Aero 

Engines, Germany’s leading engine 

manufacturer, on various military and 

commercial programs for 17 years, 

Schreyögg most recently supervised 

the TP400-D6 military engine program. 

That engine will power the upcoming 

A400M military transport. 

Meter, Stuttgart University and Bundeswehr 

University Munich. The kick-off event took 

place in Munich in February. “With this Dream 

part project we support the progressive 

development of the geared turbofan to 

power A320 family and Boeing 737 successor 

aircraft,” explains Dr. Günter Wilfert, 

who at MTU manages the Dream project. 

On a profitable 

growth track 

“2007 has been yet another successful business 

year for MTU,” said Egon Behle, CEO of 

MTU Aero Engines Holding AG, at the annual 

press conference in Munich in mid-March. At 

the first press conference he held in his new 

function Behle presented very positive annual 

results. MTU’s revenues in 2007 improved by 

seven percent from approximately 2.4 billion 

euros to around 2.6 billion euros, and were 

therefore in line with the company’s estimated 

target. There was a pronounced rise in 

adjusted EBITDA, which grew at a rate of 24 

percent to 392.9 million euros (2006: 318.2 

million euros). MTU thus exceeded its forecast 

of 385 million euros, which had been 

raised in the course of the year. The compa- 

MTU Aero Engines – 

Key financial data for 2007 

MTU Aero Engines 

Revenues 

of which OEM business 

of which commercial engine business 

of which military engine business 

of which commercial MRO business 

EBITDA (calculated on a comparable basis) 



EBITDA margin (calculated on a comparable basis) 

in the OEM business 

in the commercial MRO business 

Net income (IFRS) 

Net income (underlying) 

Earnings per share (adjusted) 

Free cash flow 

Research and development expenses 

of which company-funded R&D 

of which outside-funded R&D 

Capital expenditure 

Order backlog, adjusted to eliminate effects of U.S. dollar 

exchange rate 

Order backlog 



Value of MRO contracts on engines for which maintenance 

agreements are in place, in U.S. $ 

Employees 

ny’s underlying net income also increased 

significantly, improving by 22 percent from 

121.8 million euros in 2006 to 148.2 million 

euros in 2007. “We intend to stay on this 

positive course in 2008. Our prime objective 

is to expand on the basis of our good market 

position in the commercial and military 

engine business and to achieve profitable 

growth,” commented Behle and continued to 

add: “However, the U.S. dollar exchange rate 

cancels out this growth when seen in terms 

of the euro. Therefore further cost-optimization 

measures will be necessary.” 

MTU is striving for further profitable growth 

in 2008. Revenues are expected to remain at 

the previous year’s level, which corresponds 

to a growth rate of approximately six percent 

after adjustments for the effect of the U.S. 

dollar exchange rate. The company anticipates 

that adjusted EBITDA in 2008 will 

remain close to the previous year’s level of 

2007 

2,575.9 

1,599.5 

1,102.0 

497.5 

1,004.7 

392.9 

305.7 

87.9 

15.3 % 

19.1 % 

8.7 % 

154.1 

148.2 

€ 2.83 

131.7 

176.4 

88.8 

87.6 

106.1 

Dec. 31, 07 

3,513.3 

3,311.1 

3,216.8 

94.7 

7,426.6 

7,130 

390 million euros, despite a significant 

increase in investments and the effects of 

the U.S. dollar exchange rate. MTU expects 

to generate a net income for the year in the 

region of 180 million euros, which represents 

an increase of almost 20 percent. 

The greatest contribution to these positive 

results is expected to come from the commercial 

engine business. MTU is reckoning 

on stable development of its commercial 

maintenance activities and in the military 

sector. MTU intends to increase its investments 

in 2008 to above the average level. 

Plans especially include strategic investments 

such as the acquisition of additional 

shares in engine programs, expansion of 

facilities at MTU Maintenance Hannover, and 

the construction of the new plant in Poland. 

Despite this expenditure, free cash flow is 

expected to reach an amount of approximately 

100 million euros. 

(Figures quoted in € million, calculated on a comparable basis, statements prepared 

in accordance with IFRS. Figures calculated on a comparable basis apply 

adjustments to the IFRS consolidated results to exclude restructuring and 

transaction costs, capitalized R&D costs, and the effects of IFRS purchase 

accounting.) 

2006 

2,416.2 

1,483.1 

993.5 

489.6 

954.7 

318.2 

217.7 

103.4 

13.2 % 

14.7 % 

10.8 % 

89.1 

121.8 

€ 2.25 

115.7 

169.9 

80.6 

89.3 

114.1 

Dec. 31, 06 

3,342.3 

3,342.3 

3,218.4 

124.1 

4,847.0 

7,077 

Change 

+ 6.6 % 

+ 7.8 % 

+ 10.9 % 

+1.6 % 

+ 5.2 % 

+ 23.5 % 

+ 40.4 % 

- 15.0 % 

+ 73.0 % 

+ 21.7 % 

+ 25.8 % 

+ 13.8 % 

+ 3.8 % 

+ 10.2 % 

- 1.9 % 

- 7.0 % 

Change 

+ 5.1 % 

- 0.9 % 

- 0.05 % 

- 23.7 % 

+ 53.2 % 

+ 0.7 % 

37

Entirely new dimensions 

A heavyweight has arrived at MTU Aero 

Engines: Since early this year, an engine to 

power the A380 mega-transport has been 

undergoing testing in Munich. The GP7277 is 

running in test cell III that has been 

specifically reconstructed for the purpose. In 

all, MTU has spent 4.2 million euros on the 

upgrade, enabling the test cell now to 

38 News 

accommodate engines with a thrust of up to 

400 kilonewtons. 

The GP7000 is the first engine tested in the 

upgraded test cell, which first has to 

demonstrate its operability. In several runs, 

pressures, temperatures and vibrations are 

measured on the engine and test cell. “When 

we’re able to show the authorities results 

obtained on an engine with a thrust of more 

than 300 kilonewtons, the permanent approval 

becomes legally valid. The GP7000 delivers 

350 kilonewtons,” explains Kurt Scheidt, 

who heads up engine testing, commercial 

programs, at MTU. He expects to obtain the 

permanent approval sometime this year. 

New centers of competence in 

Munich and Hannover 

MTU Aero Engines has established two new 

centers of competence: Partnering with the 

Bundeswehr University Munich, the engine 

maker is developing the More Electric Engine, 

and in partnership with Leibniz University 

Hannover and Laser Zentrum Hannover, 

repair techniques. The contracts were inked 

in mid-December last year in Munich and 

end-March this year in Hannover. 

Leibniz University Hannover 

The Munich-based center of competence for 

More Electric Engine is intended to develop 

concepts for engines widely equipped with 

mechatronic systems and components to 

satisfy the strong electric power demand of 

future engine generations. Additionally, the 

requisite components, measuring and control 

systems for the purpose need developing. 

Under the roof of the new center of competence, 

various technical disciplines will be 

cooperating in a long-term interdisciplinary 

effort. On the part of the university, these 

are the Institute for Jet Engines, which has 

been a research partner of MTU for many 

years, the Chair for Electric Propulsion Engineering 

and the Chair for Sensors and 

Measuring Systems. Part of their emphasis is 

on getting a highly advanced aircraft engine 

Bundeswehr University Munich 

up and running as a demonstrator in the test 

cell of the Institute for Jet Engines. That engine 

is to play a pivotal role in envisioned 

interdisciplinary research. The partners expect 

to derive fruitful stimulation and synergies 

from the More Electric Aircraft technology 

project, an initiative of the Chair for 

Electric Propulsion Engineering at Munich’s 

Bundeswehr University in partnership with 

EADS. 

Repair competency in Hannover 

The emphasis at MTU’s new center of 

competence in Hannover is on long-term, 

continuous research and development tasks 

in the domain of repair techniques and processes. 

In a concerted effort, Leibniz 

University Hannover, Laser Zentrum Hannover 

and MTU expect to enhance their respective 

competitiveness, move university research 

closer to practical application and support 

the training of young scientific talent. 

Involved on the part of the university are the 

Institutes for Production Engineering and 

Machine Tools, for Materials Science, Turbomachines 

and Fluid Dynamics. Further disciplines 

may be invited to join in when the 

need arises. At MTU, too, several different 

disciplines are collaborating. 

For the engine maker, the new facility is the 

sixth center of competence within Germany. 

Overall, MTU is partnering at five different 

locations with 21 research institutes. “We 

attach great importance to supporting university 

teaching and training,” explained Dr. 

Rainer Martens, member of MTU’s board of 

management and chief operating officer, 

who signed both contracts. 

Masthead 

Editor 

MTU Aero Engines GmbH 

Eckhard Zanger 

Senior Vice President Corporate Communications 

and Investor Relations 

Editor in chief 

Heidrun Moll 

Address 

MTU Aero Engines GmbH 

Dachauer Straße 665 


Tel. +49 89 1489-3537 

Fax +49 89 1489-4303 

E-mail: heidrun.moll@mtu.de 

Internet: www.mtu.de 

Editorial staff 

Bernd Bundschu, Denis Dilba, Nicole Geffert, 

Patrick Hoeveler, Odilo Mühling, Thorsten Rienth, 

Andreas Spaeth, Martina Vollmuth, Robert 

Wouters 

Layout 

Manfred Deckert 

Sollnerstraße 73 


Photo credits 

Cover Page: 

Pages 2–3 

Pages 4–7 

Pages 8–11 

Pages 12–13 

Pages 14–15 

Pages 18–19 

Pages 20–21 

Pages 22–23 

Pages 24–27 

Pages 28–29 

Pages 30–31 

Pages 32–34 

Pages 36–39 

Pratt & Whitney, photographer 

G. Roberts 

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd; 

Eurofighter; MTU Aero Engines 

photo archive 

Pratt & Whitney; Mitsubishi Heavy 

Industries Ltd; MTU Aero Engines 

photo archive 

IAE International Aero Engines AG; 

Airbus, photographer H. Goussé; 

MTU Aero Engines photo archive 



Airbus; Dubai Civil Aviation (DCA); 

Engine Alliance LLC; MTU Aero 

Engines photo archive 

Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH; 


Airbus Military S.L.; Marshall 

Aerospace; MTU Aero Engines 

photo archive 

Eurofighter; Airbus; MTU Aero 

Engines photo archive 

Federal Ministry of Defense; 

Eurofighter 

© artistic composing: 

www.CDonline.de; Siemens press 

picture 

© Patrick Hoeveler; United States 

Navy 

MTU Aero Engines photo archive; 

Leibniz University Hannover; 

Bundeswehr University Munich 

Printed by 

Graphische Betriebe Eberl GmbH 

Kirchplatz 6 

87509 Immenstadt • Germany 

Contributions credited to authors do not necessarily 

reflect the opinion of the editors. We will 

not be held responsible for unsolicited material. 

Reprinting of contributions is subject to the 

editors’ approval. 

39

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