Olivier Andriès receives 2019 Grand Prize from the French Air and Space Academy for the LEAP engine program

Since being created in 1983, the prestigious Grand Prize awarded annually by the Académie de l’Air et de l’Espace (French Air and Space Academy) recognizes the excellence of people, entities and landmark projects in aerospace.

During his acceptance speech, Safran Aircraft Engines CEO Olivier Andriès said, “By giving this award in recognition of the program’s success, the Air and Space Academy  bolsters the pride and recognition of the people at Safran Aircraft Engines and GE who design, produce and support this new-generation engine. The LEAP is a unique achievement in industry."

“This distinction recognizes the strength of our international partnerships and the technology choices that have made the LEAP a worthy successor to the CFM56, as well as our team’s unrelenting commitment to meeting the challenge of the unprecedented ramp-up in LEAP production rates. Thanks to this collective effort, including of course our friends at GE, we are on track to ensure the success of the CFM56/LEAP transition.”

The LEAP has enjoyed a very successful entry into commercial service, having already logged more than 6 million flight-hours on the Airbus A320neo and Boeing 737 MAX airplanes. It is also the fastest-selling engine in the history of civil aviation, with more than 18,850 orders and commitments as of October 31, 2019.  Because of this strong market demand, CFM is now experiencing a production ramp-up unprecedented in the history of aviation. In 2020 it will turn out more than 2,000 LEAP engines.

“This distinction is also due to the two founding fathers of CFM, René Ravaud and Gerhard Neumann, two real visionaries who were able to draw on their deep convictions and their differences to develop an exceptionally robust concept,” concluded Olivier Andriès. “By launching the CFM56 engine in the early 1970s, they blazed a path to success, carrying in their wake thousands of persons towards an extraordinary destiny. Without their perseverance, we would not be here today. Forty-five years after the creation of CFM, we are, as Isaac Newton said, standing on the shoulders of these two giants, driven by their joint passion for this endeavor, and nothing was going to get in their way. Because of this history we have some very special responsibilities, namely to perpetuate this heritage and to continue to build on the success of CFM.”