Price Induction, a startup company based in Anglet, France, is studying a 560-lb-thrust high-bypass-ratio turbofan that would establish a new thrust class. Applications of the DGEN380 would be four-seaters, allowing pilots to upgrade from piston singles to twinjets. Another market could be airline-pilot training. The company told AIN talks are under way with an unnamed airframer, and the development schedule calls for the first engine to run early next year, and a proof-of-concept aircraft may fly late next year.
“We have now found the right cycle for the engine and aerodynamic studies are almost completed,” said Bernard Etcheparre, Price Induction’s chairman and CEO. The company should have three employees (all engineers) by March. At the Paris Air Show in June, Etcheparre’s project received much interest from an airframer as the powerplant for a 3,300-lb mtow airplane that would seat four or five people. He would not name the company but revealed, “this led us to focus on 560 pounds instead of the 450 pounds we intended previously.”
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