GE Aviation rolls out its 1,000th GEnx engine

GE Aviation assembled the 1,000th GEnx engine, just a mere five years after the first production engine was built at GE's Durham, North Carolina.

“The GEnx was the fastest selling engine in GE's history, and now it is the fastest production ramp up of a GE widebody engine program,” said Tom Levin, general manager of the GEnx/CF6 engine product lines at GE Aviation. “GEnx engines are powering the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 aircraft for more than 40 customers, and more orders are anticipated for many years to come. The GEnx engine has proven itself with outstanding performance and reliability.”

The first GEnx engine entered service on a Boeing 747-8 aircraft in 2011, and the engine program has accumulated five million flight hours and 900,000 cycles.

Of the engines that currently power the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the GEnx-1B engine has set itself apart in the following areas:

[if !supportLists]- [endif]Leading engine of choice for Boeing 787 with more than a 60 percent win rate.

[if !supportLists]- [endif]Best fuel burn: The GEnx-1B engine has a 2.3 percent fuel burn advantage on the Boeing 787 on routes of 3,000 nautical miles, and this advantage increases further for longer range missions.

[if !supportLists]- [endif]Highest reliability with a 99.96 percent dispatch reliability rate and a 25 percent lower engine removal rate than the competition.

[if !supportLists]- [endif]Fewer NOx emissions: NOx emissions are as much as 55 percent below today's regulatory limit and other regulated gases are as much as 90 percent below today's limit.

In hot and harsh environments, the GEnx-1B engine is the engine of choice on the Boeing 787 aircraft and enjoys a 90% win rate with operators in the Middle East, China, Africa and India. About 200 GEnx-1B and -2B engines are in service in these environments and have accumulated close to 1 million flight hours.

Production volume of the GEnx engine remains high. Last year, GE delivered 280 GEnx engines and 270 engines are set to be delivered in 2015.

GE is also looking at possible technology enhancements to ensure the GEnx engine remains a leader in its class. This year, testing took place on a GEnx demonstrator engine that contained lightweight, heat-resistant ceramic matrix composite (CMC) components in the high-pressure turbine (HPT) and combustor along with next-generation HPT stage 1 blades with advance cooling technology and lightweight low-pressure turbine titanium aluminide (TiAl) blades produced using a 3D additive manufacturing process. The demonstrator engine is part of the technology maturation program for the GE9x engine. Results re-affirm GE's CMC technology roadmap and could lead to future improvements on the GEnx engine.

“As we look to the future, we are committed to making sure the GEnx retains its leadership position and continues its exceptional performance,” said Levin.

The GEnx engine family is the fastest-selling engine in GE Aviation history with about 1,600 engines on order. GEnx revenue-sharing participants are IHI Corporation of Japan, GKN Aerospace Engine Systems of Sweden, MTU of Germany, TechSpace Aero of Belgium, Snecma (SAFRAN Group) of France and Hanwha Techwin Inc. of Korea.

The GEnx 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.