EDC :: Engineering Design Center Polska

The GE90 engine experienced its most successful year in 2011, accumulating airline and freighter operator commitments for 400 engines with a list price of more than $11 billion. This surpasses the previous record of 250 engine commitments in 2007.

This year included a record-setting Emirates’ order for 50 Boeing 777s, powered by GE90-115B engines, announced at the Dubai Air Show in November.

“The Boeing 777 and GE90 engine combination is growing in popularity with customers worldwide and is the best-selling aircraft-engine combination in its class,” said Bill Millhaem, general manager of the GE90 Program at GE Aviation. “Total orders for the GE90 engine family now exceed 2,000 engines with a backlog of 800 engines that will be delivered in the next four years.”

The 200 aircraft commitments announced in 2001 are for GE90-powered Boeing 777-300ERs and Freighters.

The production rate for the GE90 is growing, with plans to produce more than 180 GE90 engines in 2012 up from 170 engines in 2011. The production rate is expected to climb to 225 engines in 2014.

The GE90 story centers on an extraordinary faith in technology. In 1990, the late Brian Rowe, the architect behind GE Aviation’s rise to the top of the jet propulsion industry and former President and CEO, announced the new baseline GE90 concept. Launched on the 777, the GE90 featured several technology “firsts”—including carbon-fiber composite fan blades.

As the Boeing 777 aircraft grew in size thus requiring higher thrust engines, customer demand for the GE90 soared. The GE90-115B engine, developed for the 777-300ER and 777-200LR, entered service in 2002—the best service entry for any large GE engine at that time. The engine has continued its stellar performance with an in-flight shutdown rate (IFSD) of 0.001, which means only one engine IFSD per one million engine flight-hours.

Since then, the GE90 has influenced every commercial engine developed at GE Aviation. The GE90 formed the basis for the best-selling GEnx for the new Boeing 787, and provided the core hot section for the Engine Alliance* GP7200 engine for the A380. The GE90 architecture also influenced the new CFM International+ LEAP engine, the best-selling engine for the Boeing 737 MAX, Airbus A320neo, and COMAC C919 aircraft.

In addition to an unrivaled thrust rating of 115,000 pounds, the GE90-115B offers the enhanced performance and efficiency of three-dimensional, aerodynamic (3D aero) compressor airfoils and wide-chord, swept composite fan blades. The GE90-115B performance and efficiency, coupled with the GE90-115B dual annular combustor technology, significantly limits fuel consumption and restricts hydrocarbon emissions to 40 percent of the level permitted by current international standards.

Snecma of France, Avio SpA of Italy and IHI Corporation of Japan are revenue-sharing participants in the GE90 program.

The GE90-115B engine is part of GE’s „ecomagination” product portfolio—GE’s commitment to implementing innovative, cost-effective technologies that enhance the customers’ environmental and operating performance.

The manufacturing of the GE90 engine involves the following GE locations in the United States:

- Asheville, North Carolina: seals, splitter, retainers, spinner support

- Batesville, Mississippi: composites (fan stator case, acoustic panels, fan platforms)

- Dayton, Ohio: tubes, ducts, manifolds

- CFAN San Marcos, Texas: composite fan blades

- Durham, North Carolina: engine assembly and overhaul

- Evendale, Ohio: design and development testing

- Greenville, South Carolina: turbine blades

- Hooksett, New Hampshire: stator vanes (stationary airfoils) and tubes

- Lynn, Massachusetts: CD plate, combustor liner, combustor case

- Madisonville, Kentucky: turbine airfoils

- Peebles, Ohio: final assembly and engine testing

- Rutland, Vermont: airfoils (fan booster and compressor)

- Terre Haute, Indiana: No. 1 bearing housing, combustor liners, centershields for combustor assembly

- Victorville, California: flight testing

- West Jefferson, North Carolina: high-pressure turbine disks and shafts, compressor disks, and fan disks

- Wilmington, North Carolina: stage 1 high-pressure turbine disk, spool, fan disk, mid seal

GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation. Learn more about GE Business & General Aviation at http://facebook.com/GEBGA. Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation.

GE’s GEnx-1B engine powered the Boeing 787 Dreamliner that set world records for speed and distance for the aircraft’s weight class.

“GE Aviation is thrilled to be a part of the record-setting flights on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner,” said Bill Fitzgerald, vice president and general manager, GEnx Program at GE Aviation. “These world records showcase the extreme reliability and durability of the GEnx-1B engines and the advanced technologies that are incorporated.”

The 787, ZA006, aircraft powered by GE’s GEnx-1B engines departed Boeing Field in Seattle at 11:02 a.m. on December 6 and set the distance record for its class (440,000-550,000 lbs.) with a 10,710 nautical mile (nmi) flight to Dhaka, Bangladesh, with credit for 10,337 nmi (19,144 km). This record had previously been held by the Airbus A330 based on a 9,127 nmi (16,903 km) flight in 2002.

After a two-hour stop for refueling in Dhaka, the aircraft returned to Seattle on a 9,734 nmi (18,027 km) flight. The aircraft landed at 5:29 a.m. on December 8, setting a new record for speed around the world eastbound with a total trip time of 42 hours and 27 minutes. There was no previous around-the-world speed record for this weight class.

Flight routing on the first segment of the journey took the airplane from Seattle across the U.S. to Nantucket. After crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the aircraft entered European air space at Santiago, Spain, and proceeded down the Mediterranean, across Egypt and Luxor, across the Middle East and over India to Bangladesh. On the second segment, the Dreamliner flew over Singapore, the Philippines and Guam before entering U.S. airspace over Honolulu and returning to Seattle.

The GEnx-1B engine recently received its 330-minute extended-range, twin-operations (ETOPS) approval on its engine type certificate from the FAA. To receive this, the engine completed all requirements, including a demanding 3,000-cycle ground endurance test

Based on proven GE90 architecture, the GEnx engine succeeds GE’s CF6 engine. Compared to the CF6 engine, the GEnx will offer up to 15 percent improved fuel efficiency, which translates to 15 percent less CO2. The GEnx’s innovative twin-annular pre-swirl (TAPS) combustor dramatically reduces NOx gases as much as 55 percent below today’s regulatory limits and other regulated gases as much as 90 percent. Based on the ratio of decibels to pounds of thrust, the GEnx is the quietest engine GE has produced due to the large, more efficient fan blades that operate at slower tip speed, resulting in about 30 percent lower noise levels. The GEnx is the world’s only jet engine with both a front fan case and fan blades made of carbon fiber composites.

Revenue-sharing participants on the GEnx are IHI Corporation of Japan, Avio SpA. of Italy, Volvo Aero of Sweden, MTU of Germany, TechSpace Aero of Belgium, Snecma (SAFRAN Group) of France and Samsung Techwin of Korea.

The GEnx is part of GE’s „ecomagination” product portfolio – GE’s business strategy to develop new, cost-effective technologies that enhance customers’ environmental and operating performance.

GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation. Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has granted 330-minute extended-range, twin-engine operations (ETOPS) approval to 14 CFR Part 33.201 for the GEnx-1B engine, which will power the Boeing 787 aircraft.

The GEnx-1B engine completed all requirements to achieve 330-minute ETOPS, including a demanding 3,000-cycle ground endurance test in April. The FAA approval confirms the engine has demonstrated the required reliability to conduct ETOPS operations up to 330 minutes flying time from a primary or alternate airport. ETOPS approval provides airlines much greater route-scheduling flexibility as it allows twin-engine aircraft to service routes traditionally reserved for three- and four-engine aircraft.

GEnx-2B Update

In October , the first GEnx-2B-powered Boeing 747-8 aircraft was delivered to Cargolux. Since that time, five additional GEnx-2B-powered Boeing 747-8 aircraft have been delivered. With less than two months in service, the GEnx-2B engine has already completed more than 1,700 engine flight cycles.

Based on proven GE90 architecture, the GEnx engine succeeds GE’s CF6 engine. Compared to the CF6 engine, the GEnx will offer up to 15 percent improved fuel efficiency, which translates to 15 percent less CO2. The GEnx’s innovative twin-annular pre-swirl (TAPS) combustor will dramatically reduce NOx gases as much as 55 percent below today’s regulatory limits and other regulated gases as much as 90 percent. Based on the ratio of decibels to pounds of thrust, the GEnx will be the quietest engine GE has produced due to the large, more efficient fan blades that operate at slower tip speed, resulting in about 30 percent lower noise levels. The GEnx will be the world’s only jet engine with both a front fan case and fan blades made of carbon fiber composites.

Revenue-sharing participants on the GEnx are IHI Corporation of Japan, Avio SpA. of Italy, Volvo Aero of Sweden, MTU of Germany, TechSpace Aero of Belgium, Snecma (SAFRAN Group) of France and Samsung Techwin of Korea.

The GEnx is part of GE’s „ecomagination” product portfolio – GE’s business strategy to develop new, cost-effective technologies that enhance customers’ environmental and operating performance.

GE Aviation, an operating unit of GE (NYSE: GE), is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, components and integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft. GE Aviation has a global service network to support these offerings. For more information, visit us at www.ge.com/aviation. Follow GE Aviation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/GEAviation and YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/user/GEAviation.

Because principles and challenges in turbosuperchargers apply to gas turbines as well, GE was a logical choice to build America’s first jet engine.

In 1941, the U.S. Army Air Corps picked GE’s Lynn, Massachusetts, plant to build a jet engine based on the design of Britain’s Sir Frank Whittle. Six months later, on April 18, 1942, GE engineers successfully ran the I-A engine.

In October 1942, at Muroc Dry Lake, California, two I-A engines powered the historic first flight of a Bell XP-59A Airacomet aircraft, launching the United States into the Jet Age. The thrust rating of the I-A was 1,250 pounds; the thrust rating of the GE90-115B is more than 90 times as great at 115,000 pounds.

The I-A engine incorporated a centrifugal-flow compressor, as did the increasingly more powerful engines developed by GE during the next two years, culminating in the J33 engine, which was rated at 4,000 pounds of thrust. The J33 powered the U.S. Army Air Corps’ first operational jet fighter, the P-80 Shooting Star, to a world’s speed record of 620 miles per hour in 1947. Before the end of that year, a GE J35 engine powered a Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak to a record-breaking 650 miles per hour. The J35 was the first GE turbojet engine to incorporate an axial-flow compressor–the type of compressor used in all GE engines since then.

However, the Air Corps, concerned about disrupting supplies of turbosuperchargers, placed production of GE’s jet engines with other manufacturers. GE then set about designing another. The resulting J47 put GE back in the business of building jet engines. But demand for the J47 to power almost all the new front-line military aircraft, particularly the F-86 Sabre Jet, meant the Lynn plant could not keep up. GE needed a second factory.

GE selected a federally owned plant near Cincinnati, Ohio, where Wright Aeronautical piston engines had been produced during World War II. GE formally opened the plant on February 28, 1949, with the second J47 production line, to complement the original line at Lynn. Later, the plant would be known as Evendale and would become GE Aviation’s world headquarters.

With the Korean War boosting demand, the J47 became the world’s most produced gas turbine. More than 35,000 J47 engines were delivered by the end of the 1950s. That engine scored two major firsts: it was the first turbojet certified for civil use by the U.S. Civil Aeronautics Administration- and the first to use an electronically controlled afterburner to boost its thrust.

The war created a boom environment. Employment at GE’s Evendale facility experienced a- ten-fold increase, from 1,200 to 12,000 people in 20 months), requiring a tripling of manufacturing space. In 1951, GE announced that the Evendale plant would be one of the world’s truly great jet engine centers in peace and war. In 1954, the Evendale manufacturing complex, virtually empty just six years earlier, was designated as GE’s production facility for large jet engines while its sister plant in Lynn, Massachusetts, focused on developing and producing small jet engines.

This post comes from GE aviation webpage.