Maximizing Aerospace Program Payback Remains GKN’s North Star

Paris Air Show 2025

Maximizing Program Payback Remains GKN’s North Star

Aerostructures and engines specialists cherry-pick future tech opportunities

GKN engine components — In-service support now accounts for more than 50% of all engine revenues for GKN Aerospace, and three-quarters of these are from the civil sector. © GKN Aerospace

By Charles Alcock • Managing Editor

June 9, 2025

GKN Aerospace’s growth path for the next five years hinges on its ability to extract the maximum reward from its design capabilities for aircraft engines and aerostructures, rather than simply getting paid as a manufacturer. That, explained CEO Peter Dilnot in a media briefing ahead of the Paris Air Show, comes down to picking winning programs and maximizing the amount of intellectual property it contributes to these, yielding long-term paybacks through risk- and revenue-sharing partnerships (RRSPs) as these winners make it to market.

In the race to provide power for the next generation of single-aisle airliners, GKN is involved with the leading contenders: CFM International’s open rotor Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program, Rolls-Royce’s UltraFan concept, and the next generation of Pratt & Whitney’s Geared Turbofan (GTF). The group already has 19 engine RRSPs in its portfolio, which collectively represent more than 40 years of what it characterizes as “aftermarket entitlement.”

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