General Electric Aviation in Terre Haute is helping push the boundaries of aeronautical engineering and developing the future of air travel.
Researchers and engineers at the Terre Haute GE site have spent the last five years developing combustion sections for the GE9X — the world’s largest jet engine — and were finally able to see the engine in action earlier this month.
On March 13 at a GE Aviation test bed in Victorville, California, a GE9X test engine was hung on a 747 and flown for more than four hours, completing the entire test card and validating the engine’s capabilities, allowing the test campaign to move forward.
“I think all of our employees are very proud to have been a part of the development,” said Eric Ortman, GE Aviation Terre Haute site manager. “It’s very rewarding to see a lot of the effort culminate into a journey that’s really going to invent the future of flight.
“When you see a new airplane fly for the first time, it really validates some of the work we do that really advances our aerospace capabilities.”
Ortman said the 450 folks at GE Aviation in Terre Haute have been partly responsible for developing the sections of the engine where jet fuel is ignited “with space-caliber metals that endure 3,000-plus degree Fahrenheit heat.”
He said since development started, his team has had to tweak the design nearly a dozen times to meet the aerodynamic and cooling specifications needed for the combustion section of the engine.
“Modifications are needed after each trial, and we’ve done about 12 different trials with it so far,” Ortman said. “It’s really just a matter of optimizing the performance of the engine.”
The engine will power Boeing’s new 777X line of aircraft and sports the largest-ever fan at a diameter of 133 inches, beating out the previous record of 128 inches.
“If you had Larry Bird with Reggie Miller on his shoulders he could still walk in that engine and they both would still fit fine in it,” GE company spokesman Nick Hurm said.
And with that size, Hurm said the engine produces an enormous amount of thrust.
“This is a 100,000-pound thrust engine and if you think about it like the Titanic – its engines only produced 46,000 horsepower thrust,” Hurm said.
But Ortman said advances in aerospace technology have allowed GE to not only produce a massive jet engine, but one that is more efficient than its predecessors.
“The GE9X will replace a commercialized engine called the GE90. And ultimately, additional efficiency was gained by some pretty significant developments in coatings and in composite materials,” Ortman said.
“Those advances now enable us to burn fuel more efficiently and hotter in the combustion section of the engine.”
And while Ortman is proud of the GE9X and other products GE produces, he’s especially proud of the work his staff of 450 in Terre Haute does everyday.
“I don’t think a lot of people in Terre Haute know that most commercial aircraft that are flown have something that was produced at the corner of Poplar and Third street,” Ortman said. “I think what I’m most proud of, and what our team is most proud of, is the expertise all of our technicians and employees have.
“Without the capabilities and dedication of our team to be able to optimize and invent the future of flight, many of these things we’re doing wouldn’t be possible. Our employees make that happen, technology just enables it.”
Engine certification is expected in 201, and Ortman said his team will continue to produce combustion section parts once commercial production begins.