ITP Aero Tests New GE Aerospace CT7-8F5 Engines for NH-90 Helicopters with SAF

ITP Aero has successfully completed engine testing using a blend of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with conventional jet fuel at its Albacete (Spain) facilities with the GE Aerospace CT7-8F5 engine, which powers the Spanish Ministry of Defence’s NH-90 helicopters. Going forward, ITP Aero plans to use approved SAF blends in all CT7 engines. With the support of GE Aerospace and British Petroleum, this milestone is an important part of ITP Aero’s efforts to help the aviation industry reduce emissions.

Colonel Juan Manuel Sánchez Coello, Chief of the OSC NH90, said: “The Spanish Armed Forces are firmly committed to minimizing the environmental impact of air operations and, therefore, they support all efforts to meet this objective while also maintaining a balance between efficiency, costs and safety in their flights. Today, the Spanish Armed Forces, and in particular the OSC NH90 as the Military Office for the common sustainment of the Spanish NH90 fleet, welcomes this initiative by ITP Aero to promote the use of SAF fuel in its engines, and it hopes that this contribution will serve to promote that in the near future SAF becomes an affordable and available standard supply in our daily activity”.

Álvaro Santodomingo, Director of Defence at ITP Aero, said: "This milestone is a further step in our commitment to continue advancing the use of SAF and is in line with our objective to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Together, we are positioning Spain as a major player in the use of SAF, and we are proud to be able to do so now hand in hand with the Ministry of Defence”.

With more than 100 million flight hours, GE’s CT7/T700 family of turboshaft and turboprop engines operate in all environments around the globe.

Elissa Lee, Director of GE Aerospace's Commercial Turboshaft Engines, said: “ITP Aero is the first maintenance, repair and overhaul facility to commit to utilizing SAF for its GE Aerospace engine testing. This effort represents a very significant step forward for the CT7 program as well as industry efforts to reduce emissions from flight and operations. After more than a decade of partnership, we are proud to celebrate this milestone with ITP Aero, a proven customer service leader for our CT7 customers.”

Andrés Guevara, Chairman of BP Spain, said: "We are very pleased to contribute to the decarbonisation of the Ministry of Defence's operations by supplying SAF from our refinery in Castellón, the first refinery worldwide to obtain CORSIA (Carbon Offsetting & Reduction Scheme for Intentational Aviation) certification. Our commitment to help decarbonise the aviation sector includes increasing the production capacity of SAF in Castellón to 450,000 tonnes/year by 2027".

This milestone joins other projects for the use of SAF that ITP Aero is promoting in different platforms of the Spanish Ministry of Defence. In this regard, it should be noted that ITP Aero is part of the Air and Space Army's BACSI (Connected, Sustainable and Intelligent Air Base) programme with the aim of increasing the effectiveness, productivity, efficiency and sustainability of air bases. As part of this project, the Eagle Patrol flew for the first time with SAF during the air parade of the last “Hispanic National Day”. ITP Aero designed an instrumentation system to help validate the use of SAF in the engines that power the Eagle Patrol's C-101 aircraft. The technology developed by ITP Aero was able to automatically measure the temperature of the engine gases, helping to validate their proper operation with SAF.