UAE Powertech engine development

[Philip the Arab]

EDGE’S POWERTECH SET TO FIRE ON ALL CYLINDERS Edge Group’s newlyestablished Powertech engine business is looking to secure the first partnership agreements over the next few months to help underpin its ambition to develop a broad range of engines to power its own and other aircraft.

“We have already signed highlevel strategic term sheets and MoUs with strategic partners to explore the different engines that we can co-develop,” Khaled Al Zaabi, Edge’s president of platforms and systems, said in an interview.

Firm partnerships should be in hand ahead of the November Dubai Air Show, he said. Powertech represents one of Edge’s most ambitious efforts to make the United Arab Emirates more autonomous for its supply of military equipment. It is intended to complement the state-owned companies’ autonomous vehicle efforts.

“When engineers start to develop an aircraft, the first question they ask is: ‘what engine do I have around?’ And then they basically design the platform around the engine,” Al Zaabi said. “So for us, propulsion systems, from piston engines, to micro-jets, to medium-sized jets. to large turbojet propulsion systems, is our destiny, because unless we control that or work with partners that enable us to be able to design and develop them, we will never really be taken seriously in terms of delivering our own capabilities.” The partnerships could lead to joint ventures that develop their own intellectual property to address initially Edge’s needs, “but then we can address international markets as well,” he added.

Edge is not looking to take on large commercial aircraft engine makers, such as General Electric or Rolls-Royce, he noted, looking to stay away from engines above 35,000lb of thrust. Al Zaadi said Edge’s uncrewed aircraft portfolio is now growing to the size that making the engine investment makes sense. The company began to seriously explore the endeavour about a year ago. “With the right volumes, with the right demand and production that we have, it makes full economic sense for us to be able to embark into developing our own propulsion systems,” he said.

The company is not blind to the challenges of developing sophisticated propulsion systems. “We’re going into this with very wide eyes, wide open. We know the difficulties; we know the complexities. We know this is not an easy journey,” Al Zaadi said. Edge has used the IDEX defence show to disclose one of its first efforts, the six-cylinder P145I to power uncrewed systems. Powertech is rapidly growing and looking to build up its production capacity. Al Zaadi said the company is looking to lean into automation and leverage other Edge operations to help build up its manufacturing capacity, including the group’s EPI precision engineering unit. “It’s not just a matter of producing an engine. It’s a matter of how do we produce an engine that’s competitive?

 

[Philip the Arab]

up 145hp engine for UAVs

Turbojet engine for missiles/drones

There is currently a program for a 4500 newton engine for cruise missiles, but this company is in its infancy and is actively expanding.

Getting up to anywhere near 35000lbf is a gigantic challenge for anybody, we'll see if they're able to do it in the coming decades.

If they can anywhere near the F110(pictured below) I'd be surprised

-----

“For us, propulsion systems—from piston engines to microjets to medium-size jets to large turbofan, turbojet propulsion systems—are our destiny,” Khaled Al Zaabi, Edge’s president of platforms and systems, told Aviation Week at the IDEX defense show, held here Feb. 17-21. “Because unless we control that or work with partners that enable us to be able to design and develop them, we will never really be taken seriously in terms of delivering our own capabilities.”

The push also represents perhaps the most challenging hurdle the company is tackling, given problems other countries have faced in trying to establish autonomous propulsion capabilities. “We’re going into this with very wide eyes, wide open,” Al Zaabi said. “We know this is not an easy journey.”


Edge wants to be in the full value chain, from single-crystal turbine blades to high-pressure turbine disks and fan blades. While Powertech aims to cover a broad thrust range—up to around 35,000 lb.—it does not intend to take on leading aircraft engine-makers, such as GE Aerospace or Rolls-Royce.