The GE Brief: February 23, 2022
FUTURE OF FLIGHT SPECIAL
Hydrogen Takes Flight
This week the aviation industry took a new step to reduce its carbon emissions. Airbus and CFM International — a 50/50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines — announced that they’ll collaborate on tests of a GE aircraft engine fueled by liquid hydrogen. Around the mid-2020s, the team plans to mount the engine on a modified Airbus 380 for flight testing, with the goal of placing a hydrogen-powered passenger plane into service about 10 years later. Such a plane would produce zero CO2 emissions during flight. Read more about the project here.
Fun fact: GE Aviation has announced three major technology demonstrations aimed at reducing CO2 emissions to help make the industry more sustainable. Look at the items below.
Rising To The Challenge
Last October, the Air Transport Action Group declared the aviation industry’s commitment to a goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. The group’s members include GE Aviation, which invested $1.8 billion in 2020 alone in aviation research and development, including new advanced materials and technologies that can help cut fuel consumption and even enable hybrid electric design. In June, CFM International announced the launch of the Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) Program to demonstrate advanced technologies for the next generation of engines that will use 20% less fuel and produce 20% fewer CO2 emissions than the most efficient jet engines built today. Read more about the declaration here and the RISE program here.
Fun fact: CFM’s fleet of CFM56 engines has flown more than 200 billion miles. That equates to flying around the world more than eight million times. Or more than 400,000 round trips to the moon. Or flying to Pluto and back 20 times.
Electric Skies
Last October, NASA and GE Aviation announced a new partnership to mature a megawatt-class hybrid electric engine that could power a single-aisle aircraft. The project got one step closer to takeoff in January when GE Aviation selected Boeing to modify the plane that will test the propulsion system in the air. Flight tests are projected to start in the mid-2020s. The NASA-GE partnership is part of NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) project, a five-year, $260 million effort being funded by investments from NASA, GE Aviation, Boeing and other partners. The story is here.
Fun fact: GE and NASA are also working on a new supersonic jet whose design mitigates sonic booms. That story is here.
Lowering Emissions Today
Last November, we told you about a commercial long-haul flight from London to Abu Dhabi operated by Etihad Airways that notched an important industry milestone. The carrier reduced the trip’s carbon emissions by 72% compared with a typical journey, using existing technologies. The Boeing 787 was powered by GE’s GEnx jet engines and used a sustainable aviation fuel mix, a contrail mitigation system, GE’s Fuel Insight software and a cleaning system that helps make jet engines run more efficiently. But there’s more to the story. Etihad collaborated with American filmmaker Michel Moskal, who placed 10 cameras in the pilot’s cockpit and filmed the flight. The video, which was published by Moskal’s channel Just Planes last week, has already garnered more than a million views. Take a look here.
Fun fact: Mimmo Catalano, the captain of the London-to-Abu Dhabi flight, was 5 years old when his dad took him to work at his office, at an airport in Sardinia. The boy’s imagination was captured and the rest, as they say, is history. Capt. Mimmo’s story is here.
Have A SAF Flight
By switching from petroleum to sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), the aviation industry could reduce its carbon contribution from fuel by up to 80%, taking into consideration the entire life cycle of the fuel. One person who knows a lot about this task is Gurhan Andac. As GE Aviation’s engineering leader for aviation fuels and additives, Andac has devoted his career to researching SAF. Find out more here.
Fun fact: Last fall, United Airlines flew a passenger flight from Chicago to Washington, D.C., on which one of the two LEAP-1B engines built by CFM used only SAF. That story is here.
The 5 Coolest Things On Earth ?
1. Tapping geothermal energy anywhere on earth.
2. A protein that might contribute to antibiotic resistance.
3. A 3D-printable, self-healing hydrogel.
4. Turning hydrogen peroxide into rocket fuel.
5. A wand that produces electricity when you shake it.
— Quote Of The Day —
“Bringing together the collective capabilities and experience of CFM, our parent companies, and Airbus, we really do have the dream team in place to successfully demonstrate a hydrogen propulsion system.”
— Gaël Méheust, president and CEO, CFM International
Quote: GE Reports. Images: CFM International, Boeing, Etihad, GE Aviation.