Safran Aircraft Engines

Safran Aircraft Engines, previously Snecma (Société nationale d'études et de construction de moteurs d'aviation) or Snecma Moteurs, is a French aerospace engine manufacturer headquartered in Courcouronnes and a subsidiary of Safran. It designs, manufactures and maintains engines for commercial and military aircraft as well as rocket engines for launch vehicles and satellites.

Some of its notable developments, alone or in partnership, include the Dassault Rafale's M88 engine, the Concorde's Olympus 593, the CFM56 and CFM-LEAP for single-aisle airliners, as well as the Ariane 5's Vulcain engine.

The company employs around 15,700 people across 35 production sites, offices, and MRO facilities worldwide and files an average of nearly 500 patents each year.

Safran Aircraft Engines also notably operates two joint ventures with GE Aerospace: CFM International, the world’s leading supplier of commercial aircraft engines, and CFM Materials.

In terms of volume, the most impactful commercial aero engine produced by Safran Aircraft Engines is the CFM International CFM56 turbofan powerplant. This engine is both developed and manufactured via a 50-50 joint venture company, CFM International, which Safran jointly owns with the American industrial conglomerate General Electric (GE). Established during the 1970s, the CFM56 was not an early success; by April 1979, the joint venture had not received a single order in five years and was allegedly two weeks away from being dissolved. The program was saved when Delta Air Lines, United Airlines, and Flying Tigers chose the CFM56 to re-engine their DC-8s; shortly thereafter, it was also selected to re-engine the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet of the United States Air Force, this operator being the engine's biggest customer. Following this turn of fortune, tens of thousands of engines have since been produced over the decades. A total of 30,000 CFM56s have been completed by July 2016.

Safran Aircraft Engines is also the main partner for several other engines coproduced with GE, including the CF6-80 and GE90. Safran Aircraft Engines is also involved in the Engine Alliance, which manufactures the GP7000 high-thrust turbofan engine, one of the only two powerplants certified to power the twin-decker Airbus A380. During the 2010s, Safran started manufacturing its portion of the LEAP engine via the CFM International joint venture; Safran and GE each assemble half of the annual volume. To cope with high demand for the LEAP engine, CFM has duplicated supply sources for 80% of parts and as well as subdivided assembly sites.

Safran Aircraft Engines is also involved in PowerJet, a joint venture business with Russian aero engine specialist NPO Saturn; this company produces SaM146 turbofan engine, which is used to power the Sukhoi Superjet 100 regional jet. During 2005, a new production plant was founded in Rybinsk, VolgAero, to manufacture components of the SaM146; additionally, parts and assemblies of other engines produced by PowerJet's two parent companies are also produced on this site.

In terms of military engines, Safran Aircraft Engines produces the Snecma M88 turbofan. This engine was developed to power the Dassault Rafale fighter aircraft. It fulfills numerous stringent performance criteria, including a high thrust-to-weight ratio, low fuel consumption across all flight regimes, and a long engine life. Additional considerations were afforded to both the M88's maintainability and upgrade potential (73 kN to 105 kN using the same core). Qualification of the M88-2 engine was completed during 1996 while the first production engine was delivered by the end of that year. It is of a modular design for ease of construction and maintenance, as well as to enable older engines to be retrofitted with improved subsections upon availability, such as existing M88-2s being upgraded to M88-4E standard. In May 2010, a Rafale flew for the first time with the M88-4E engine, an upgraded variant with greater thrust and lower maintenance requirements than the preceding M88-2.