GE Aviation announced a teaming agreement with NASA to investigate the acoustic effects of open rotor engine technology next year at Glenn Research Center’s wind tunnel facilities.
The GEnx-1B engine for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner received airworthiness engine certification this week from the US Federal Aviation Administration. The FAR (Federal Aviation Regulation) 33 certification follows an extensive two-year ground- and flight-test program that involved eight engines and two flight-test programs on GE’s 747 flying test bed.
he GEnx-2B engine that will power the new Boeing 747-8 airplane demonstrated 70,950 lbs. of takeoff thrust during ground testing yesterday at GE’s outdoor testing facility in Peebles, Ohio.
…As the world’s only jet engine with both a front fan case and fan blades made of carbon fiber composites, the GEnx will also have greater durability, less weight as well as lower operating costs than comparable engines in its class.
This will be divided into two main phases, an initial three-month period focusing on steady-state and transient performance, air-starts, combustor operability margins and throttle response, and a second, shorter phase looking at the engine control system. … European Aviation Safety Agency engine certification is due in the first quarter of 2008 and US Federal Aviation Requirement Part 25 aircraft certification for the GE-powered 787 due around mid-second quarter 2008.
China Eastern Airlines Selects GEnx Engines for its Boeing 787 Dreamliner
FleetChina Eastern Airlines has selected GE-Aviation’s GEnx engine to power its 15
Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The GEnx engine is the world’s only jet engine with
both a front fan case and fan blades made of composites, which provide for greater
engine durability, weight reduction and lower operating costs. The fan blades will
utilize GE90 composite technology that has performed well, with no routine on-wing
maintenance required and no in-service issues for more than a decade. The GEnx
will operate with 18 fan blades (50 percent fewer than the CF6) at noise levels lower
than any large GE commercial engine. The GEnx also
Airbus has released a video clip of the four A380 test aircraft flying
together in formation over Toulouse this week. Manufacturer’s serial
numbers 001, 002, 004 and 009 all taxied together just before 10:00 on
30 August before carrying out simultaneous test flights culminating in a
formation fly-past at around 11:00 of the Aéroconstellation facility in
Toulouse. Last week marked the traditional end of the month-long
summer vaction period for French workers that many Airbus employees
missed due to pressure to meet certifcation targets for the ultralarge
airliner. The flypast was also a defiant gesture to prove the programme is
on track (albeit revised). The video shows the Engine Alliance GP7200-
powered MSN009 A380 leading three
Planemaker Airbus said its A380 superjumbo had made its first flight powered by engines from Engine Alliance, a joint venture between General Electric and Pratt
& Whitney. Airbus said the Engine Alliance-powered A380 took off from its Toulouse base in southwest France on Friday at 0800 GMT. Since the A380 made its
maiden flight last year, flight testing had been carried out using Rolls Royce engines. The four-engine aircraft is available with a choice of either engine model.
Six customers of the A380 plane have chosen the Engine Alliance GP7200 engine for a total of 82 firm orders. General Electric and Pratt & Whitney, a unit of
United Technologies, each hold a
Airbus will expand its offering of two new mid-sized planes to three in order to catch up with surging rival Boeing Co., industry sources said on Friday. Worried
that its pair of proposed A350 models aimed at competing with the Boeing 787 due in 2008 will do little to slow sales of Boeing’s larger 777, France-based Airbus
will add a third, larger model. “They are definitely looking at doing three,” one industry source said, adding that the new planes were likely to be named the
A350-800, A350-900 and A350-1,000. There was a chance Airbus could go with the name A370, he added. A second source confirmed the story
General Electric yesterday estimated it could cost the company up to $1
billion to design a new engine to power the potential next iteration of the
Airbus A350, and the company is still weighing whether it wants to make
the significant investment. GE-Aviation CEO Scott Donnelly said on the
sidelines of a Wings Club speech in New York that GE was in talks with
Airbus about the A350 and a possible new engine, but that no decision
had been made. He said GE “would love to be on the plane,” but he had
to weigh that desire against the large economic investment in a new
powerplant. Donnelly said the motor on the new engine would
Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 series is only engine currently offerable to
customers for revamped widebody twinjet family Airbus is trying to
convince General Electric to develop an engine that it can offer on the
revamped A350 family, which is now being proposed to potential
customers powered only by versions of the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000
engine. Airbus is declining to confirm details of its studies into the revised
family ahead of next month’s Farnborough air show, at which time it
hopes to “clear up the confusion” surrounding the status of the new
twinjet, says the company’s chief operating officer customers John
Leahy. However, he tells Flight International that Airbus is “a little
disappointed with GE’s response” to
