Hanwha Aerospace, a subsidiary of Hanwha Group’s defense division, has gained ‘unlimited trust’ from Rolls-Royce of England, one of the world’s top three aircraft engine manufacturers. Hanwha Aerospace was delegated the authority to carry out the quality inspection procedure that Rolls-Royce did before mass-producing aircraft engine parts. This is the first of Rolls-Royce’s hundreds of partners around the world.
On the 19th, Hanwha Aerospace announced that it had obtained qualifications for self-review and approval for mass production suitability from Rolls-Royce. Accordingly, it is possible to carry out the’Quality Verification and Approval Procedure (PPAP)’ on its own before mass production of newly developed aircraft engine parts.
The company explained that the acquisition of this qualification was based on the highest level of PPAP (Level 1) among Rolls-Royce partners. Hanwha Aerospace plans to carry out PPAP at its Changwon and Vietnam sites in the future.
In this regard, Hyung-wook Nam, Managing Director of Hanwha Aerospace’s Changwon Plant, explained, “It was possible because we had the industry’s best quality system and excellent manpower based on manufacturing know-how and quality accumulated over the past 40 years.”
Warwick Matthews, Vice President of Purchasing at Rolls-Royce, said, “I am very pleased to acquire this qualification for Hanwha Aerospace.”
Founded in 1884, Rolls-Royce, along with Pratt & Whitney (P&W) and General Electric (GE) of the United States, is one of the world’s top three aircraft engine manufacturers. It has been manufacturing aircraft engines for over 100 years, and as of the end of 2019, its sales amounted to £16.5 billion (about 24.80 trillion won). It is well known for its high level of pride in technology and poses difficult conditions to partners. In the industry, it is evaluated that Hanwha Aerospace has been recognized for its manufacturing technology and capabilities through the acquisition of this qualification.
Hanwha Aerospace has been conducting military engine maintenance and depot maintenance with Rolls-Royce since 1984. Since then, Rolls-Royce’s state-of-the-art civil aviation engine, the Trent series, has been in charge of manufacturing casings and modules installed in various engines, strengthening the cooperation system.
As a result, it won the Rolls-Royce’s Best Partner Award in 2018, and signed a contract to supply state-of-the-art aircraft engine parts worth about 1 billion dollars (about 1.1 trillion won) in 2019. Supply for at least 25 years until 2045.
Along with this, partnerships with P&W and GE are also being established. In 2015, Hanwha Aerospace signed an international joint development project (RSP) contract with P&W for the latest aircraft engine’GTF Engine’. Considering the fact that advanced companies such as Germany, UK, and Italy have been leading RSP, it is possible to interpret that Hanwha Aerospace has laid a foothold to become a major partner.
In September 2016, P&W announced a contract to operate a joint venture (JV), a Singapore aircraft engine parts manufacturing subsidiary. Through this, Hanwha Aerospace will acquire a 30% stake in P&W’s Singapore production subsidiary. It was the first case that a domestic company directly participated in the management of a production subsidiary of a global aircraft engine manufacturer.
In addition, Hanwha Aerospace signed a contract with GE to supply high-tech aircraft engine parts worth $300 million (about 330 billion won) in 2019. It is supplying six types of high-pressure compressor cases and high-pressure turbine cases installed in GE’s latest engine GE9X, and 40 types of high-pressure turbine cases for LEAP engines. Prior to this, in 2016, it signed a technology cooperation contract for localization of engine parts for the Korean fighter (KF-X), and in 2014, it signed a contract to supply engine parts for aircraft worth 470 billion won.
Hanwha Aerospace is building its position in the global aircraft engine market by strengthening partnerships with the world’s top three aircraft engine manufacturers. Currently, in the global civil aircraft engine market, three major manufacturers dominate 70-80%.
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