Building something new usually takes a lot of brains, effort and time. When GE decided to put blades made from untested carbon fiber composites inside a brand new jet engine, replacing titanium with what was essentially plastic, it also required a lot of nerves.
βThe design team woke up every morning thinking about it, and went to bed every night thinking about it,β says David Joyce, chief executive of GE Aviation. βIt was such a radical change in design.β
The result was the GE90, the worldβs largest and most powerful jet engine, and the bet, which took place 20 years ago, keeps paying off. βIt was an investment that wasnβt just for the GE90,β Joyce said at the Paris Air Show this week.
GEβs next engine, the GEnx, used composites for fan blades but also for the fan casing, a new application of the material that helped the engine shed hundreds of pounds.
The latest engines like the LEAP and the GE9X and also standing on the shoulders of the GE90 giant, and adding the newest materials and technologies such as heat-resistant ceramic matrix composites and 3D printing. βWe have a really nice suite of technologies to sample,β Joyce said.
But GE Aviation is not the only business with access to this high-tech buffet. For example, aircraft engine technologies have found applications in gas turbines for power generation and wind turbine design. βWe all share and leverage what scientists at our Global Research Centers develop,β Joyce said. βThatβs the idea of the βGE store.ββ