Born: United States of America
Primarily active in: United States of America

From Leadership Profile: Vertiflite November/December 2024

Harry Nahatis, Vice President of Global Pursuits, Defense and Systems, GE Aerospace

Now the current chair of the Vertical Flight Society Board of Directors, Harry Nahatis reflects on his 37 years at GE Aerospace, his 27 years on turboshaft engines, and on the state of the vertical flight industry. “It’s a very exciting time to be in vertical lift,” he observed. “We have an awful lot going on in both the military and commercial market segments.”

Nahatis began his GE career at Lynn, Massachusetts, and today, as Vice President of Defense & Systems Global Pursuits, oversees global business sales from the same busy engine plant. “In my career, I’ve interfaced very closely with engineering,” he said. “In general, we have dedicated product line engineering teams, but there are functional groups that specialize in specific areas, such as aerodynamics or component life management — the sciences, if you will. My role today is to work with engineering to understand what our product capabilities are and how they can best meet customer requirements.”

Rotorcraft requirements are evolving, according to Nahatis. “I think in terms of the technology trends that I see, it’s range and speed and autonomy that are valued by our military customers, both in the US as well as internationally. In the commercial segment, sustainability is first and foremost. That’s taking the form of sustainable aviation fuel and all the activity in eVTOL [electric vertical takeoff and landing] and the hybrid-electric space.” Nahatis continued, “We have a program with the Army Research Lab to demonstrate a hybrid-electric drivetrain, and we have teamed with Sikorsky to fly a version of that drivetrain in an autonomous aircraft, the HEX program.” Nahatis explained, “In general, hybrid-electric propulsion will enable you to size the engine smaller than it would otherwise be because you don’t have to size it for the largest load — you can handle that with an energy storage device.”

Nahatis’ current sales portfolio includes the turboshaft engines central to US and international helicopter modernization. “About a third of my day is still spent on rotorcraft,” he said. “We’re focused on the T901 to replace the T700 in Black Hawks and Apaches. We’re also making sure we’re producing and supporting the T700 engine. It’s still a state-of-the-art product. It’s got great maintainability, great performance and it still sells well. We’re ramping up the T408 program for the Marine Corps CH-53K. We’re excited by the prospects for that engine.

It’s a large engine — 7,500 shp [5,500 kW] — and it’s got a unique capability in the marketplace, so we’re talking to just about every OEM [original equipment manufacturer] about different things it could do.” Nahatis continued, “We have some combat aircraft engines — the F414 and F404 — that are managed here in Lynn. The large combat aircraft engines like the F110 and [their] technology programs are based out in Evendale, Ohio.”

GE Aerospace’s offerings also extend to vehicle health and flight management technologies from Grand Rapids, Michigan, including the “digital backbone” key to the US Army’s Future Long Range Assault Aircraft (FLRAA). “The big initiative in avionics is open system architecture,” explained Nahatis. “We tend to call that digital backbone, and that’s an area where we have some really good technology. That helps lower our customers’ operating and support costs because it makes it easier for them to integrate different components into the aircraft. They don’t have to redesign the entire computer system of the aircraft every time they want to change a certain component.”

Close to Home
Harry Nahatis grew up in Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, the picturesque town north of Boston on Cape Ann facing the Atlantic. “I’d always been interested in engineering,” he recalled. “I started with chemistry and rocketry before I was a teenager. I really enjoyed physics and calculus in high school. In my senior year, my high school offered a program where, in the last quarter of your senior year, you could do an internship with a company where you might have an interest. It turned out the company where I did an internship was GE here in Lynn.”

The eager high school helper shadowed an engineer around the engine plant for about 12 weeks. Nahatis said, “That’s what got GE on my radar screen. I was aware of all the neat things that are done here. From an engineering perspective, there’s not a lot of things more difficult to do than design a jet engine. It was pretty exciting for me.”

Nahatis earned his undergraduate degree in aerospace engineering at the University of Michigan, but another junior-year summer internship at GE Lynn provided new insights and a change in direction. “I was a quality auditor on the production floor, so I got a whole different view of how a jet engine is made from a quality perspective. After graduating from Michigan, I applied for a job in the Edison Engineering Program. You could take courses at MIT [Massachusetts Institute of Technology] while working full time, and GE would pay for it. GE gave you a semester off of work to complete your thesis and graduate as a full-time student.

“GE had a relationship with MIT at the time, and that led to graduating from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering. I really liked physics and aerodynamics, but as I got more real-world experience in the jet engine business, I found that mechanical engineering would be quite useful. My early jobs were in what we call performance engineering — understanding the overall performance of the engine. I found it incredibly helpful to understand the mechanics of things as well, so I got that graduate degree in mechanical engineering.”

After completing the Edison Engineering program, Nahatis started working on the F412 turbofan engine for the ultimately canceled Navy A-12 attack aircraft. The early 1990s were also busy with derivatives of the T700 and T64 for helicopter applications. “Really, it was probably four years out of college here at GE that I got my first exposure to the rotary-wing world, and I loved it — terrific customers and incredible products. The physics of the aircraft and being able to hover added a whole different dimension that I found incredibly fascinating, and I stuck with that for over 25 years.”

Move with the Market
Rotary-wing programs also shifted Harry Nahatis from pure engineering to successive turboshaft sales and program management assignments. He earned an MBA degree from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business and applied the skills acquired to his new roles. “That was the heyday when really the international marketspace started booming for Black Hawks and Apaches. That’s when I started to get more in the business side of things rather than hardcore engineering. I started working on turboshaft programs. We were developing T700 derivatives for different aircraft, the -401C for the US Navy and -701C for the US Army. We were also starting to expand and find international customers for the T700 in Europe and Asia.”

Despite his focus on sales and programs, Nahatis still keeps in touch with his engineering roots and advances in engine technology today. He noted, “For sure, our aerodynamic tools are better. We’re achieving much higher component efficiencies with improved stall margin, which is the balance you always have to achieve. Our heat transfer tools, our cooling schemes and our materials are much more advanced than when I started. We’re able to achieve higher pressure ratios and higher temperatures in the pursuit of better fuel consumption and better power-to-weight. Those are the key parameters that our customers look for.”

Nahatis added, “We can also be a bit more predictive than we have been, as well as do a better job of troubleshooting when something doesn’t seem to be right with an engine.” The modular T700 introduced condition-based maintenance. “It was revolutionary when it was developed in that regard,” noted Nahatis. The successor T901 further advances integrated health monitoring. “The major improvement is with the troubleshooting, understanding how the engine is operating, and if it isn’t operating right, what has to be done. The T408 is more advanced than the T700, and the T901 is more advanced than the T408 because the technology has been evolving.”

The rotorcraft engine market is in another period of growth, acknowledged Nahatis. “Internationally, you’ve got Europe looking to modernize with the Next Generation Rotorcraft Capability [NGRC] to replace the NH90. Worldwide, you’re seeing defense budgets increase because of all the conflicts, obviously.” Nahatis added, “On the commercial side, I think the big news is the disruptive technology of eVTOL. The next couple of years will be fascinating in that regard as these aircraft start certification and customers start using them.”

Harry Nahatis first encountered the American Helicopter Society, today’s Vertical Flight Society, in 1996. “I was in T700 sales at the time. I’ve been a member ever since then and always tried to make the Forums. At heart, I’m an engineer. I love technology advancement. I love pushing the envelope in technology. I love developing new products to best meet customer needs. The Vertical Flight Society provides a forum for technological exchange and networking. Those are the things that appeal to me. For me, it’s truly an honor to be the chair of the VFS. It’s just the culmination of everything I’ve done in vertical lift.”

Nahatis concluded, “What I hope to accomplish in my time as chair is to better serve our members. As an industry advocate, I want to push for increased funding for rotorcraft and more infrastructure for rotorcraft safety and better regulations. Our wheelhouse is to provide technical forums to exchange ideas and network. I’d like to grow our membership, specifically internationally — we’re activating a Middle East chapter in October. Our workforce development efforts aim to establish and grow student chapters to extend our STEM reach. I also like to embrace disruptive technology. I credit Mike Hirschberg, the former VFS Executive Director, with recognizing the emerging eVTOL space and embracing it. I’m honored to be in this role and look forward to meeting current members and expanding the reach of VFS.”