OREANDA-NEWS. GE Aviation will create a turboprop engine development, test and production operation in Europe.  This will represent an investment exceeding $400 million and ultimately support 500 – 1,000 jobs.    

The turboprop industry is highly global and comprised of many small aircraft operators.  Among the  factors driving GE Aviation to pursue the new operation in Europe is the need to support these and other international customers with financing through government-sponsored Export Credit Agencies (ECAs). 

GE is currently bidding on $11 billion of projects that require export financing. The U.S. remains the only major economy in the world without an Export Bank. Since the U.S. Export Import Bank (Ex-Im) authorization expired July 1, GE has commenced talks with several foreign ECAs to secure financing for its customers. 

GE Aviation will continue to expand its operations into countries where critical Export Credit Agency financing is available for its global customers.  As with the U.S. Ex-Im Bank, many ECA countries have requirements that production and jobs must be invested in-country to qualify for financing.

For example, in Canada, GE Aviation has designated its Bromont facility as the Global Robotics Center of Excellence and will build out this facility’s capabilities with additional investments in automation and advanced manufacturing technologies. Also in Canada, GE will expand its engine testing capability at its facility in Winnipeg, with $23 million in investments.  This includes enhancing its wind tunnel and test stands to support development testing for GE’s new large commercial engine, the GE9X.

Additionally, in Brazil, GE Aviation will invest $55M to expand capability by building a new engine test facility at its Celma location, supporting growth in assembly and overhaul of its commercial engines in airline service. 

“Right now, across the entire company, GE has $11 billion in sales opportunities in the pipeline requiring ECA financing,” says David Joyce, President and CEO, GE Aviation.  “The uncertainty around the Ex-Im Bank in the U.S. requires that companies like GE create alternatives in order to compete internationally.”

About GE Aviation’s turboprop business

With this move, GE Aviation is combining the valuable expertise in its turboprop facility in the Czech Republic, along with ground-breaking technologies in its military and commercial jet engines, to pursue new turboprop engines in the 1000 to 1300 shaft horsepower (shp) range and in the 1500 to 2000 shp range.

In addition, GE research continues on a new 5,000 shp turboprop engine for the regional market that will leverage GE’s new GE38 turboshaft military helicopter engine (for the U.S. Marines’ CH53-K heavy lift helicopter), as well as technologies across GE’s broad military and commercial jet engine portfolio.

GE Aviation has the largest development engine portfolio in the jet propulsion industry and invests more than $1 billion annually in research and development.

About GE

GE (NYSE: GE) imagines things others don’t, builds things others can’t and delivers outcomes that make the world work better. GE brings together the physical and digital worlds in ways no other company can. In its labs and factories and on the ground with customers, GE is inventing the next industrial era to move, power, build and cure the world.

About GE Aviation

GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet, turboprop and turboshaft engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation.