On Wednesday June 15 at the Paris Air Show, SAFRAN announced that it was taking over total ownership of the company SMA (Société de Motorisation Aéronautiques), previously equally-owned by Snecma, EADS and Renault. We talked to Luc Pelon, the new SMA Chairman and CEO, about his plans for this promising company.

Would you say that SMA is in a sense a return to your roots?

It is, and very much so. I took part in the development of SMA, a company founded back in 1997 to design and manufacture a diesel engine for light aircraft. I left SMA for four years, during which I moved to the United States as a Vice President of CFAN – our joint venture with GE – and this experience was very beneficial. The break from SMA allowed me to step back and analyze the situation objectively to plan ahead.

Do you think your experience in America will be useful as the head of SMA?

It gave me the opportunity to discover and develop my knowledge of the American aviation sector, and establish contacts in this major market. Although I was not involved in the light aviation market at the time, I had my ears open, and I will now be totally focused on this market. In a sense, I’m more open than if I had been involved back then, so yes, my American background should prove very useful.

Another important point is that I was involved in a joint venture between GE and Snecma. On one hand, that allowed me to understand and embrace the SAFRAN corporate culture, and on the other it gave me a model for a partnership with an American company. From my viewpoint, the partnership between Snecma and GE is a textbook case, an extraordinarily rich alliance in terms of expertise, technologies and many other areas. It will be my benchmark for any partnerships that SMA might develop in the future.

Speaking of which, what are the next steps in SMA’s development?

First, I intend to remain modest, although with the ambition needed to sell our engine. Why not create a family of engines for this market segment? Of course, if we do that, we will also have to successfully manage our technological, legal, commercial and financial risks, and make sure we have a healthy return on investment.

To meet this challenge, I plan to capitalize on the know-how and passion of the team that developed this product. We are going to restructure our competencies and make full use of the Bourges plant, an impressive industrial facility where we will refocus our activities. My aim is to foster exchanges and leverage synergies so that we can share the knowledge of engine development teams in other group companies.

We will be offering a product that fully meets the expectations of the aviation market. We will sell this engine by targeting the right customers in market segments that are ripe for our engine.