#GEInstaWalk: GE Loosed Instagrammers at an Engine Testing Facility, See What Happened

The words jet engine testing call to mind the heady days of Chuck Yeager pulling Mach 2.44 over the California desert. These days, the testing tends more toward the high-tech than cowboy, but it’s no less awesome a site to behold. That’s why GE recently loosed a gaggle of Instagram photographers on GE Aviation’s Peebles Test Operation in Ohio to document the space age facilities. We called it the first ever #GEInstaWalk.

The six winning photographers were plucked from the photo-sharing network to join a crack team of GE’s regular Instagram contributors at the test facility. There, they photographed the black “turbulence control structure” that looks part Death Star, part Buckyball. They also got shots of engines like the ultraquiet and efficientGEnx and the LEAP-1A, a next-gen power plant equipped with carbon-fiber composite blades, 3D-printed fuel nozzles and parts made from ceramic matrix composites.

See the slideshow of some of the day’s best captures below.

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Lindsay Crowder framed the turbulence control structure against the wispy clouds in the sky.
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Chris Ozer captured the play of light on the honeycomb-like matrix of the turbulence control structure.
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Dan Cole got this shot of a test stand at the Peebles facility.
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Adam Senatori got up close and personal with the fan blades of a GEnx engine.
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Tyson Edwards found fans at the Peebles Test Operation.
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Christian Cannon snapped Tyson Edwards jumping over a 55-foot wind tunnel at GE’s Peebles Test Operation.
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Tyson Edwards captured this feat of strength.
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  A Chris Ozer shot from inside the test facility.
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