Rolls Royce Upbeat
March 2nd, 2009
In news from HAI’s Heli Expo in California, Rolls Royce is forecasting a market “characterised by near-term softness followed by a resumption of growth,” and predicts that in the next ten years, there will be more than 15,000 turbine helicopters delivered. This represents a slight increase a slight increase in the company’s February 2008 market forecast.
The value of the 15,000 turbine helicopters predicted in latest forecast by Rolls Royce is around $130 billion for the airframes and around $12 billion for engines.
Ken Roberts, President of the Rolls Royce Helicopter Engine business, said: “The projection of deliveries in the short-term shows that the industry will not escape the economic downturn, but will remain quite resilient overall. The market will exhibit strong demand by 2013, indicative of its underlying strength.”
“With the oil and gas industry, police, air ambulance and defence ministries all looking for new, purpose-built aircraft, the demand for and benefits of helicopter usage are clear,” said Roberts.
The Rolls Royce market forecast also projects approximately 6,000 new military helicopter will be required over the same ten-year period. The estimated airframe value of these is around $104 billion and the installed engine value, around $8 billion.
