CFM International LEAP

Airbus says... or said its single biggest challenge, or, you know, the longest pole in the tent, is the Pratt Motor Gear turbofan.

Interestingly, they did not say that there was a problem or that they were concerned about deliveries of the CFM LEAP engine.

But GTF, yeah, they are... clearly worried as to whether Pratt & Whitney, and therefore its partners, can deliver those engines at the rate that Airbus believes that they promised that they would.

But otherwise, I think you're right.

The last time the three of us were together, it was for a special episode of Check 6 Revisits, where we kind of set the scene on where CFM came from and how the Leaps Progenitor, the CFM56, really set a benchmark for reliability.

Now, as I said in my intro, we can't shy away from the fact that there have been some challenging times at the leap and we'll get there.

But to kick us off, let's first go back to look at why the CFM56 has been such an industry stalwart.

And as we speak today, we still have 24,000 engines flying.

And a good third of that, 8,000 engines, have not even seen a first shop visit.

And that's why I'm telling the teams, You know, the young people who are looking forward to work on Leap or on Rise within CFM.

I said, you guys are working for a program for the future.

8,000 engines have not reached the first shop visits, you know? And so, yeah, it's a tremendous success.

And then you would certainly talk about them as a competitor to GE.

And so the LEAP, the L-E-A-P, is the most important engine right now.

I believe it's on three aircraft.

It's on the Boeing 737 MAX, and there it's the only engine.

So their PMA parts, which are these manufacturer approval parts from the FAA, they are a lot of times on these older mature engines and mostly on the less critical parts, but they are in the engines.

So, you know, they wouldn't have any copy of a LEAP high pressure turbine blade made from ceramic matrix composites.

And I actually spelled that out because I want to make sure that it sounds as complex as it is.

But again, they don't have these sort of parts, but it could happen in the future.

Perhaps over time, they are allowed and able to build those tools.

And then you would certainly talk about them as a competitor to GE.

And so the LEAP, the L-E-A-P, is the most important engine right now.

I believe it's on three aircraft.

The neo suffix stands for new engine option.

You can get it with CFM International LEAP engines or Pratt & Whitney geared turbofan engines.

Either way, you're looking at fuel burn improvements of roughly fifteen to twenty percent over the previous generation A321, which Airbus called the CEO, or current engine option, on a short to medium-haul operation.

That difference is the margin between a marginal route and a profitable one.