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[[Narrator] Welcome to GE on Demand, your behind-the-scenes look at ]
[GE's technologies and ideas and the people who make it happen. ]
[We hope you like what you find. ]
[[Tom Christian] Hi, this is Tom Christian. ]
[I'm with the GE Aviation located in Cincinnati, Ohio.]
[I'm the general manager for the GEnx project.]
[We are really excited with the results so far.]
[We're not that surprised that the technology is taking off, ]
[but we are surprised how fast it's taken off.]
[We have currently passed this $10 billion sales mark with 830 engines on order,]
[and that's before we have even certified the product, and I think that's the confidence]
[that the airlines and the air framers--Boeing, in particular--have placed in the GEnx project]
[because of the technology level that we have in the engine.]
[It's 15% lower fuel burn than the engine we're replacing, which is the CF6-80C2.]
[It has half the noise footprint and has emissions that are 40% reduced,]
[relative to the nitrous oxide emissions that the engine produces,]
[and also 15% less carbon dioxide.]
[Customers like that equation, and they like the fact that our engine]
[comes off of the GE 90 family, which has been extremely reliable in the field,]
[and they know that GE will execute.]
[This program is a great example of our invest and deliver strategy,]
[investing heavily upfront, developing the state of the art technology,]
[and then delivering it for 30 years to customers, ]
[meeting their important requirements. ]
[GE has invested over a billion dollars in just the development program alone,]
[and then we also had to make a healthy investment to help Boeing]
[with the 787 airplane development, and so we're in lock step]
[with their craft manufacturer.]
[This is a huge investment in a new product; however, we're going to be producing ]
[in this engine for 30 years. ]
[Our first engine goes out later this year.]
[The CF6 started producing engines in early 1980's.]
[These are still in production.]
[We all know what has happened to fuel.]
[When we started designing this engine, oil was at about $30, $35 a barrel,]
[and we all know that it's over $60 today, and who knows where it will go in the future.]
[Number one, CTQ for the customer is lower fuel burns.]
[Reduce my cost of ownership. Allow me to have a profitable business.]
[We're helping our customers now with the technology that we have in this engine,]
[to reduce that fuel burn cost of ownership,]
[with Boeing, a total of 20% versus what they're flying today.]
[Then on the ignition side, obviously more and more important,]
[you can pick up a newspaper any day of the year and read about the CO2 reductions,]
[the carbon trading going on in Europe, the smog around airports.]
[I think with the technology of our new TAPs combustion system]
[that has really attracted airlines, and they know that if they buy the GEnx engine,]
[that they're going to be good for the next 20 to 30 years with this technology]
[in meeting more stringent requirements coming in the future.]
[This thing is going great. We've got 6 engines on test.]
[We've got over 1,000 hours, over 600 cycles. ]
[We are just about ready to finish up our icing testing in Mirabel, Canada,]
[We get all the points run there.]
[We're doing hail testing now at Cincinnati at our Peebles outdoor test facility.]
[We are on schedule to certify this engine as we've committed to Boeing]
[In about a month, we're going to start running the most critical path engine]
[which is the block test engine.]
[This is where we run the engine at max course speed, max fan speed, and max temperature.]
[Those conditions will never, ever be seen in the field, but it's a way that we run]
[to the most severe conditions, for 150-hour block test, to certify that the engine does ]
[meet all of the durability requirements, not only for the FAA, but for ourselves. ]
[We are actually going to ship 18 production engines this year,]
[81 production engines next year, and that is all way ahead of our first delivery]
[to China Eastern Airlines in June of 2008.]
[Of course, the Olympics in Beijing is September and October of 2008,]
[and I'm sure these airlines are going to be very proud ]
