Revival of a European defence engine program

How a European Tier 1 supplier managed to shake off the negative image of a helicopter for which it developed the twin engine.

CLIENT & INDUSTRY

European Aero Engine Consortium,
Defence Industry, Aerospace Industry

SERVICES

Transformation Communications

Rebuilding Identity, Trust, and global Visibility

Image Improvement

Transformation

Four European manufacturers of aero engines have formed a consortium to build a twin engine for the TIGER light combat helicopter.
In addition to the agreed purchase of a defined number of engines for the army aviation forces of the participating nations via OCCAR, the engine was also to be sold to other nations.
However, there were years of delays in the development and commissioning of the aircraft, as well as in the further development of the twin engine MTR390-E.

Social & Emotional Aspects

During the deployment of German soldiers in Afghanistan, they urgently needed their own air support from the TIGER. However, the fact that it had not been delivered 25 years after the order was placed outraged the public, the soldiers, politicians, and OCCAR.
The image of the TIGER helicopter, which had been portrayed so gloriously in the 1995 James Bond movie “Golden Eye” (prototype PT3) began to crack. This also had an impact on the engine consortium. The employees of the companies involved identified less and less with their product.
There was a risk of an emotionally motivated downward spiral from a negative image to declining performance, falling quality, even deeper disappointment, and ultimately the premature end of the entire program.

viadoo's Contribution to Success

In this change situation, the European engine consortium asked viadoo Change Guides for support. Our first goal was to raise the awareness of the program organization, which had been virtually invisible until then.
We therefore developed a completely new corporate design for the consortium – inclidung a company logo, which had been lacking until then. In addition to the initials, the new logo consists of four stylized turbine blades, which we have arranged in a staggered pattern. On the website, an animated paddle wheel also rotates around the logo.
We also designed and implemented a twin website and materials for the international marketing of the state-of-the-art propulsion system and its predecessor model.
To raise further national and international awareness of the propulsion system and improve the consortium’s image, we created a change communication plan. This included multilingual press releases and editorial articles for national and international trade media in the military aviation sector.
We also communicated positive feedback from the troops about the engine consortium’s on-site trainings.
In this way, we helped to ensure that the Bundeswehr, politicians, and the specialist public were able to distinguish more clearly between the aircraft and the engines produced for it by other companies.
This also made it easier for employees to finally identify with their product again.

Facts & Figures about the TIGER

The legendary Ludwig Bölkow played a leading role in developing the Bo 105 in the 1960s. For a long time, this MBB helicopter was considered one of the most innovative and successful in the world. It was the first ever to have a main rotor with a rigid rotor head. The highly safe, twin-engine rotary wing aircraft was also the first of its kind to be capable of flying loops. It was mainly used by police forces, the military, civil defense and disaster control, and air rescue services. The German Armed Forces used it as an anti-tank helicopter (PAH).

In the 1980s, France’s Aerospatiale and Germany’s Messerschmitt Bölkow Blohm (MBB) were tasked with developing a successor model to this successful design: the Tiger. This was a major task not only for the binational manufacturing consortium (later EADS subsidiary Eurocopter, now Airbus Helicopters), but also for engine manufacturers.

In 1984, MTU Aero Engines founded a joint venture with the French company Turbomeca (now Safran Helicopter Engines) to develop a suitable engine. In 1989, the British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce joined the venture. From then on, the European consortium was responsible for the development, production, and maintenance of the twin engine for the Tiger as a program organization. More than 230 units of the basic version, the MTR390-2C, were delivered. Most went to Germany, followed by France, Australia, and Spain.

Later, another European consortium launched the modified Tiger engine MTR390-E. This program organization consisted of the three previous partners and the Spanish company ITP.