More Than 750 GE90, GEnx Turbofans Ordered

Representatives from General Electric told Aero-News Friday that 2005 has been a record-breaking year of sales for GE's newest large commercial engines, the GE90 and GEnx, with more than 750 engines ordered.

The GE90 engine family has sold more than 240 engines in 2005, according to General Electric, including a record 225 of the higher thrust GE90-115B engines. Boeing selected the GE90-115B engines as the exclusive powerplants for the fast-selling 777-300ER, 777-200LR and the 777 freighter. The value of the GE90 engines sold this year exceeds $4.5 billion.

In its first year on the market, more than 525 GEnx engines have been selected to power the Boeing 787 and 747-8, as well as the Airbus A350. The GEnx engine is the best selling engine on the 787 and A350 aircraft and was selected by Boeing as the sole powerplant for the recently launched 747-8 aircraft. The value of the GEnx engines sold now exceeds $6 billion.

In 1995, GE introduced the GE90 series of engines into airlines service, and the engines have logged more than 6.5 million flight hours. The GE90-94B engine, in particular, has an outstanding in-flight shutdown rate of 0.003 per 1000 engine flight-hours, well below the current 180-minute ETOPS requirement of 0.020 per 1000 engine flight-hours.

In 2004, the GE90-115B entered service on a Boeing 777-300ER aircraft at an unprecedented 115,000 pounds (512 kN) thrust. To date, the GE90-115B engine has completed more than 160,000 hours and 22,000 cycles with no engine removals and no in-flight shutdowns--a remarkable achievement for an entry into service of a new jet engine. Delivery of the first 777-200LR aircraft is scheduled for early 2006.

The GEnx is based on the architecture of the highly successful GE90. It will succeed the CF6 engine family, which is GE's most reliable and best-selling engine on wide-body aircraft.

The GEnx provides significantly better fuel burn and payload performance than GE's CF6 engines. It is the world's only jet engine with a front fan case and fan blades made of composites, which provides for greater engine durability, weight reduction and lower operating costs.

The fan blades will utilize GE90 composite technology that has performed remarkably well on GE90 engines, with no in-service issues for more than decade. The GEnx will operate with 18 fan blades -- half the number of blades on the venerable CF6 -- at noise levels lower than any large GE commercial engine currently in service. The GEnx also features a new combustor for efficient fuel mixing before ignition, resulting in significantly lower NOx levels.

Testing on the GEnx engine for the Boeing 787 is scheduled to start in early 2006, with engine certification planned for mid-2007 and entry into service scheduled for 2008.

The certification schedule for the GEnx engine for the A350 includes engine certification in 2007, flight tests in 2009 and aircraft/engine certification in 2010.

FMI: www.ge.com/aviation