“Designing a fighter jet engine is an incredibly humbling experience,” says David Tweedie, VP and general manager for advanced products at GE’s Edison Works. “There’s literally zero room for error,” which is why Tweedie is so excited about GE’s new XA100 passing its final and most rigorous test — conducted in August at Tennessee’s Arnold Air Force Base — and what that means for the future of America’s national security.
Reporting GE’s second-quarter results, Chairman and CEO of GE and CEO of GE Aerospace Larry Culp said, “The GE team delivered a strong quarter, with growth in orders, revenue, and profit, as well as positive free cash flow. Aerospace was a key driver, and services remained a bright spot of performance. While this remains the toughest operating environment I’ve seen, I am proud of how the GE team is taking action to manage continued pressures.”
Culp noted that orders grew 4% organically year over year, driven by the 26% orders growth in GE’s Aerospace business.
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Today is an exciting day for GE as we announced the new brand names for our three planned future companies: GE HealthCare, GE Vernova, and GE Aerospace.
Air France-KLM has finalized the purchase of 200 fuel-efficient CFM International LEAP 1-A engines to power its new fleet of Airbus A320neo and A321neo aircraft. Air France-KLM has been a long-standing CFM customer and selected the LEAP engine as part of a strategy to renew and expand its fleet.
After the original Hollywood blockbuster about Navy fighter pilots conquered the box office in 1986, the movie received four Academy Award nominations. All but one hailed the film’s auditory experience: best sound, best sound effects, and best original song.
Sound engineering punched up the movie’s most memorable scenes: the first four minutes, filled with takeoffs and landings, pulsating atop of a major hit song to the roar of a fighter jet buzzing the tower, as well as the acute drone of the stall warning that preceded the failed ejection of the main hero’s best friend.
Qantas pilot Captain David Summergreene has spent a quarter of a century flying passenger jets around the world. But his epiphany came while he was sitting at his desk and staring at rows of numbers on a computer screen that illustrated how the Australian national carrier was using jet fuel. “For the first time, I was able to self-service as a pilot to look at some of the most interesting metrics to me, rather than having to go to an analyst and ask, ‘Can I have this information, please?’” he says. “I was just overwhelmed by this; I was like a kid in the candy shop.”
Last October, GE Aviation closed the door on an era as employees sent the most powerful version of GE’s storied CF6 engine to China Airlines. The delivery was an emotional one, for good reason: It was the last CF6-80E1 engine the company produced.
The CF6 is no ordinary jet engine. GE produced more than 8,500 of them for 250 airlines in 87 countries, going back to its launch in 1971. Among the many passenger and cargo planes it powers is the U.S. president’s Air Force One Boeing 747.
Joseph Sorota was working his shift at a GE factory in Lynn, Massachusetts, when he was called to the main office. “There was a man I never met who asked me what I did on the way home, did I have a girlfriend, did I have a drink at a bar,” Sorota told GE Reports. “When he identified himself as a man from the FBI, I almost died. I didn’t do anything wrong, but I thought he was there maybe to arrest me.”
The U.K.-based airline Jet2 selected CFM International’s LEAP-1A engines to power its new fleet of up to 75 Airbus A321neo aircraft. The order includes spare engines and a long-term services support agreement. Jet2 plc has been a CFM customer since 2002 and has selected the LEAP engine as part of its fleet renewal strategy.
