The GE Brief – November 16, 2021
Dubai Airshow Special
The Dubai Airshow kicked off on Sunday, marking the first major gathering in the aerospace industry since the pandemic began. Here’s what people are talking about, from GE Reports.
Wide Body, Big Potential
Boeing debuted its new, highly anticipated 777X wide-body jet on Sunday, after it made its first international flight, a 15-hour trip from Seattle. The two models, the 777-8 and the 777-9, which can carry up to 406 passengers, are each powered by two GE9X engines, the largest and most powerful jet engine ever built. GE also provided the plane’s common core system, which hosts the airplane’s avionics, such as computers, data networks, sensors and other electronics. Learn more about the 777X here.
Those GE9X engines were built not only for thrust but also to withstand tough flying conditions. Take dust, which is common in Dubai, a major airline hub, and elsewhere in the world. Engines need to fend it off, especially during takeoff. Engineers at GE Aviation put the GE9X through rigorous performance testing — they even manufactured their own dust in partnership with scientists from GE Research. Find out what makes the GE9X so tough.
Batting Cleanup: 360 Foam Wash
But an engine doesn’t just need to shrug off dust. In the Middle East in particular, airlines fight a constant battle to deal with sand that can adhere to an engine’s turbine blades and work its way into the compressor. That reduces fuel efficiency and increases maintenance time and cost. Enter GE’s 360 Foam Wash, a novel method for cleaning commercial jet engines that helps to improve performance and potentially eliminate tons of climate-damaging CO2. At the Dubai Airshow this week, GE Aviation announced that the 360 Foam Wash program has reached 1,000 washes of engines in the field since 2017. Read more about foam wash here.
Information That’s Worth Billions
A recent report found that just in one year, the world’s airlines had burned $11.3 billion more fuel than was necessary, due to inefficient planning, overfueling and excess weight. Some of that expense — and the tons of CO2 emissions that resulted — could be curtailed by applying information from flight data that is available. This week at the airshow, Dubai-based airline Emirates announced plans to use two new flight data solutions from GE Digital — Fuel Insight and FlightPulse — that will provide valuable insights to help the airline reduce fuel expense and move toward its sustainability goals. Learn more here.
The GE9X In Pictures
Take a look at what went into designing the world’s most powerful jet engine, what it’s made of, and what it can do. Click here.
Tomorrow's Fuels Are Cutting Carbon Today
Travelers who flew British Airways (BA) between London and the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Scotland last week may have been surprised to know their flight used 35% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). BA’s “Perfect Flight” demonstrator reduced CO2 emissions by 62% from a similar flight more than a decade ago — 28% of the total reduction coming from the use of SAF. Some of the flights involved the Airbus A320neo, powered by LEAP engines developed by CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines. Other airlines are getting in on the SAF game as well. Find out more.
The Superfan
Roxana Leonte “fell in love with aviation from an early age,” she says. She managed to turn her dream into a career as a flight attendant with Dubai-based carrier Emirates. But the self-professed “aviation geek” is more than that. She’s a kind of rock star among aviation enthusiasts, with more than 17,000 followers on her Instagram account. And from November 14 to 18, Leonte is making her first visit to the Dubai Airshow, where she will be documenting a day-in-the-life by taking over GE Aviation’s Instagram account, with its more than 70,000 followers. Read her story here.
— Quote Of The Day —
“We’ve pushed this engine to the limits of what it might experience in the harshest conditions that we can imagine.”
— Karl Sheldon, GE9X general manager
Quote: GE Reports. Images: GE Aviation, GE Reports, British Airways, Roxana Leonte.