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Piaggio partners with Safran Helicopter Engines on Ardiden 3

The Italian aircraft and engine-parts manufacturer Piaggio Aerospace and the French company Safran Helicopter Engines have signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) to cooperate on the production of the Ardiden 3 aero-engine family. The agreement covers the manufacture of critical parts for the variants of the Ardiden 3 family, both for turbopropulsor (Ardiden 3TP) and helicopter applications.

Piaggio Aerospace and Safran Helicopter Engines already collaborate on the RTM322 and Aneto engine families for production of hot section parts of the engines.

Safran explains the Ardiden 3 is a new-generation core engine in the 1,700 to 2,000 shaft horsepower range. With two EASA-certified models, the Ardiden 3 features a compact modular architecture, and what the engine maker describes as a best-in-class power-to-weight ratio and a low cost-of-ownership.

The turbopropulsor version, Ardiden 3TP, is developed through the Tech TP technological demonstrator of Clean Sky 2 research and innovation program. The Ardiden 3TP offers 15 per cent lower fuel consumption over current turboprops engines, according to Safran. The agreement strengthens the European team built around the Ardiden 3TP for general, regional and military turboprop applications, which already includes Safran Helicopter Engines, ZF Aviation Technology (ZF Luftfahrttechnik – Germany) and ITP Aero (Spain).

“We are proud to enlarge the collaboration with Piaggio Aerospace as a partner for our Ardiden 3 engine,” said Florent Chauvancy, EVP OEM Sales, Safran Helicopter Engines. “Particularly with the Ardiden 3TP, we are committed to deliver a 100 per cent European engine featuring high levels of design maturity and competitive operating and maintenance costs. It will be designed, built and supported by highly-experienced teams using state-of-the-art industrial capabilities in Italy, Germany, Spain and France.”