Manufacturing
How One GE Aerospace Plant Used Lean to Produce a New CFM56 High-Pressure Turbine Blade
By mid-2020, normal routines around the world had ground to a halt. Early-stage quarantine plans to make the best of the spare time — to get in shape or learn a new skill — were giving way to languor and endless doomscrolling.
Jet engines
“It All Started With QCSEE”: A Revolutionary Engine Finally Takes the Spotlight
The dawn of the jet age gave birth to the concept of the global village. Once jet engines made the jump from military fighters to civilian planes in the 1950s, commercial passenger service could carry people farther and faster than ever before. Fares dropped, ticket sales quadrupled, and by 1972 almost half of all Americans had traveled by air.
Paris Air Show
How RISE Arose: The Story Behind Decades of Innovations That Bring CFM to a Pivotal Moment
In 1941, the United States government asked GE to develop the first American jet engine. Allied defense, industrial collaboration, technological advancement, and economic growth were at stake. GE delivered the very next year.
Now, more than 80 years later, GE Aerospace finds itself at the cusp of another era-defining moment. With climate change impacting communities and economies around the world, the aerospace industry is in the midst of what feels to some like a seismic shift.
Aerospace
Team Effort: Airlines, Regulators And Engine-Makers Must Work Together To Make Aviation Sustainable
Many airlines have put in place ambitious sustainability targets, but in an industry that had to weather a sharp drop in travel during the COVID-19 pandemic, lowering carbon emissions also has to be cost-effective.
Aerospace
Remote Learning: COVID-19 And The Art Of Virtual Jet Engine Maintenance Training
Andargachew Haileselassie already had a big job. “Andy,” as he’s known, trains maintenance technicians servicing thousands of GE engines powering passenger jets around the world. Before the COVID-19 pandemic struck, airlines would send their techs and engineers to Doha, Qatar — home to one of six global training facilities run by GE Aviation and its partner Safran Aircraft Engines — where Haileselassie would teach them everything from inspecting combustion chambers to mending compressor blades.
Paris Air Show
A $23 Billion Deal With AirAsia Extends CFM’s Record Run At Paris Air Show
On Monday afternoon at the Paris Air Show, jet engine maker CFM International said it signed the largest single jet engine order in history to supply fast-growing Indian carrier IndiGo with its LEAP-1A engines and services — a deal valued at more than $20 billion at list price.
Paris Air Show
CFM Kicks Off Paris Air Show With $20 Billion Deal, Largest Ever
Paris Air Show
Flying High: Jet Engine Maker CFM International Casts An Eye Toward The Future Of Flight
The Paris Air Show kicked off this weekend with a briefing for journalists — or at least that’s how the jet engine maker CFM International got things going. To CFM, this year’s show is special. Eleven years ago, in 2008, the company announced in a hotel conference room just off the Avenue des Champs-Élysées that it would build a revolutionary new jet engine called the LEAP. Speaking in the same room on Saturday, Gaël Méheust, CFM's president and CEO, told reporters that the jet engine was “delivering on what we promised.”
Aerospace
Marriage Made In Heaven: How A Ritz-Carlton Meeting Changed The History of Aviation
Drinks in a cozy, elegant cocktail lounge have preceded plenty of marriage proposals. But perhaps only once has such a session led to the creation of the most prolific jet propulsion company in aviation history.
And yet, it happened — in April 1970 at the Ritz-Carlton lounge in Boston, where leaders of France’s government-owned Safran Aircraft Engines (known as Snecma until 2005) came to court GE. Back then, GE was still chiefly building jet engines for the military, and Pratt & Whitney dominated the burgeoning civilian market.
Air Travel
The WOW Factor: Record-Breaking Jets Are Helping Airlines Enter An Era Of Ultra-Efficient Flight
Reykjavik in January isn’t the cheeriest place. Darkness reigns for most of the day — the sun rises at 11 in the morning and sets just five hours later. The temperature hovers around freezing, and rain is frequently in the forecast. Earlier this year, 200-some souls waited at Reykjavik’s Keflavik airport to swap the dank twilight for California sunshine. But the plane that had been scheduled for their flight was out of service, and officials were weighing their options.