Kim Sun, executive vice president of Hanwha Aerospace, explains “One Sky,” a new paradigm for future aircraft engine development, at the Gas Turbine Symposium 2026 held in Yeosu, Jeolla, on Nov. 27. Photo courtesy of Hanwha Aerospace
Hanwha Aerospace (012450) has unveiled a new aircraft engine development paradigm called “One Sky,” which integrates the operation of both manned and unmanned aircraft.
Kim Sun, executive vice president of Hanwha Aerospace, laid out the concept as a special guest speaker at the Gas Turbine Symposium 2026, held on the 27th at Sonocam in Yeosu, Jeollanam-do. “To rapidly develop aircraft engines that meet a fast-changing security environment and new market demands, we must make active use of the technology and experiential assets we have already secured,” Kim said.
On future battlefields, traditional weapons systems such as high-performance fighter jets and missiles will operate alongside newer systems including unmanned aerial vehicles and drones. The strategy calls for applying “Legacy Excellence” — the technology and experience accumulated in the traditional aircraft engine business — to “New Sky,” the development of future aircraft engines, and then feeding the resulting technologies and development methods back into strengthening the competitiveness of existing engines, creating a virtuous cycle.
Tactics that use relatively inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles and drones to neutralize costly strategic assets such as tanks and missiles have become commonplace in recent conflicts in Europe and the Middle East. As a result, securing large volumes of air power quickly and at reasonable cost — not just fielding high-performance weapons systems — is emerging as a core element of future warfare.
“Drawing on the technology and experience Hanwha has accumulated over the past 47 years developing and mass-producing dozens of engine types, we can develop aircraft engines quickly and economically while minimizing risk,” Kim said. “It is like drawing a blueprint when you already know the answer.” Hanwha Aerospace has defined this accumulated technology and experience as a competitive strength it calls “We Know Sky.”
The company has resolved more than 1,000 instances of trial and error through more than 10,000 engine test runs. It is also building a database of about 35,000 materials used in aircraft engines. In addition, it has the capacity to manage quality, cost and delivery in an integrated way, based on a global supply chain network spanning the United States and Vietnam and on smart factories.
On that foundation, Hanwha Aerospace in July unveiled prototypes of a 5,500-pound-force turbofan engine for low-observable unmanned wingman aircraft and a 1,400-horsepower-class turboprop engine for medium-altitude unmanned aircraft, both developed with domestic technology under a government-led program. The company also plans to take an active part in other government-led engine programs, including a 10,000-pound-force turbofan engine for stealth unmanned aircraft and an advanced aircraft engine to be developed for next-generation fighters such as the KF-21.
The company also intends to use En-genius, its in-house artificial intelligence model trained on decades of accumulated aircraft engine data, to minimize risks that can arise during engine development and to pursue the bold adoption of innovative ideas more aggressively.
“Every failed engine test adds billions of won in costs and at least several months of time, so we need a development system that minimizes trial and error, and AI can play a pivotal role in that,” Kim said. “Building on the technology and experience Hanwha holds, we will do our utmost to help South Korea lead the ‘New Sky’ era of the future aviation market.”