In the News: GE Aviation, CFM International and Engine Alliance Updates

1,000th GE90 Engine Delivered
GE Aviation's largest and most powerful engine has marked a major milestone, with the delivery of the 1,000th GE90* engine to Boeing for its 777* program. The powerplant, a GE90-115B engine, was shipped from GE's outdoor test facility in Peebles, Ohio, to Boeing's Everett, Washington, facility to be installed on a 777-300ER aircraft for Emirates Airlines.

It took 11 years to build the first 500 GE90 engines, and in a little more than three years, GE doubled deliveries to 1,000. The engine weighs more than eight tons and has earned two entries in the Guinness Book of World Records—for highest jet engine thrust (127,900 pounds) and longest nonstop flight (23 hours from Hong Kong to London).

747 Flying Testbed Celebrates 40 Years of Flight
GE Aviation recently celebrated 40 years of flight for its historic 747* flying testbed. A first-generation 747-100, the plane rolled off the assembly line on October 17, 1969, and entered service with Pan American World Airlines. Now it is the oldest version of the 747 still flying in the United States today (and the fifth oldest worldwide).

For the past two decades, the 747 flying testbed has been the primary commercial engine test aircraft for GE, CFM and, more recently, the Engine Alliance. The aircraft has flight tested engines of various sizes and thrust capabilities, from the CF34* engines for regional jets to the world's largest, most powerful engine, the GE90-115B, and has, at times, been modified to incorporate structural changes to accommodate test engines' unique requirements.

The 747 flies out of GE's Victorville Flight Test Operation, which includes a team of pilots, engineers, technicians and support personnel located at the Southern California Logistics Airport in Victorville, California.

Engine Alliance GP7200 Engine Enters Service
With Air France
Air France—the first airline to select GP7200* engines when it announced its order with the Engine Alliance at the 2001 Paris Air Show—took delivery of its first GP7200-powered Airbus A380* superjumbo jet at a Hamburg, Germany, ceremony this October. With a November 23 maiden trip between Paris' Charles de Gaulle airport and New York's JFK, Air France is the first European airline to operate the A380 aircraft and the first airline worldwide to offer transatlantic flights between Europe and the United States with this aircraft.

Since entering revenue service in August 2008, the GP7200 engine has achieved a departure reliability rating of 99.9% and has experienced no in-flight shutdowns on the five aircraft in operation. In addition to Air France, the GP7200 engine has been selected by Emirates, Etihad, the International Lease Finance Company and Korean Air.