Engines
3-D Composites Promise Leap In Efficiency
CFM is using a new 3-D woven composites process, pioneered by Albany Engineering Composites, for aero-acoustic geometry fan blades, fan case and several other parts in its Leap engine.
CFM is using a new 3-D woven composites process, pioneered by Albany Engineering Composites, for aero-acoustic geometry fan blades, fan case and several other parts in its Leap engine.

The aero-acoustic geometry fan blades, fan case and several other parts of CFM International’s Leap engine series will be the first major engine application of a new technology, 3-D woven composites. The process was pioneered by Albany Engineering Composites (AEC), a U.S. company that has teamed with CFM parent company Snecma and has granted the French engine maker exclusivity for its process (for propulsion applications) for the life of the Leap program. With more than 3,600 Leap series engines on the order books, “This is the fastest, steepest ramp-up by far in the history of the aircraft engine industry,” said AEC president and CEO Joseph Morone.

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