Recognizing a need for affordable bionics, GE Engineer & Technologist Lyman Connor was inspired to use his expertise and the tools at his disposal to reinvent the bionic hand. Read: Chance Hospital Encounter Sends an Engineer on an Improbable Mission
World’s First Plant to Print Jet Engine Nozzles in Mass Production
GE is taking mass production to a lofty new level. The company is pulling 3D printing out of the lab and installing it at the heart of the world’s first factory for printing jet engine fuel nozzles in Auburn, Ala. The company has spent the last several years developing technologies ranging from data analysis to…
Aerial Intelligence Helps Create the World’s Most Efficient Airline
At first glance, Air Asia’s fleet of Airbus A320 planes look like any other passenger aircraft. But look under the hood and you will find an array of sensors and proprietary technology developed by GE that make their pilots smarter. View: Photos of the Day: This Airbus Makes Pilots Smarter That’s because the systems gather…
Photos of the Day: This Airbus Makes Pilots Smarter
At first glance, Air Asia’s fleet of Airbus A320 planes look like any other passenger aircraft. But look under the hood and you will find an array of sensors and proprietary technology developed by GE that make their pilots smarter. (Video below). Read: Aerial Intelligence Helps Create the World’s Most Efficient Airline That’s because the…
Universal Calorie Counter Within Reach? These Researchers are Cracking the Code
A few years ago, Matt Webster decided to dispatch with the annual birthday surprise dilemma and asked his wife whether she’d like as a gift an activity monitor. She was not impressed. The problem wasn’t him asking, but the technology itself. “If it doesn’t automatically track the calories I eat, then I don’t want it,”…
The First Production HondaJet Completes Maiden Flight
The first production HondaJet business jet took off from an airstrip at Honda Aircraft’s global headquarters in Greensboro, NC, last Friday. The flight was part of FAA certification and the company expects the aircraft will enter service in 2015. The maiden voyage also marked GE’s return to the executive jet business, a market the company…
Engineers Use ‘Big Bang’ Supercomputer to Build a Better Jet Engine
At California’s Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, the world’s most powerful computers are working on some of our most fundamental questions about the universe. The Sierra supercomputer, for example, is delving into the Big Bang and trying to figure out why elementary particles have mass. View: Photos of the Day: ‘Big Bang’ Supercomputer Simulates Jet Fuel…
Photos of the Day: ‘Big Bang’ Supercomputer Simulates Jet Fuel Spray
Jet engines started out as complicated creatures ever since GE built the first one in the U.S. in 1941, and their design has gotten exponentially more intricate since. Read: Scientists Use ‘Big Bang’ Supercomputer to Build Better Jet Engine This animation (above) shows a numerical simulation of a jet fuel spray performed on Sierra in collaboration with…
Photos of the Day: GE’s WWII high-altitude flying suit
GE developed a life-size dummy called the Copper Man to spare human volunteers of discomfort when testing the suit’s extremes. The dummy was 5 feet and 10 and a half inches tall, and covered with copper skin one-sixteenth inch thick. Its head, hands, torso and feet were connected by an electrical mesh that could take readings…
Photos of the Day: GE’s WWII High-Altitude Flying Suit
GE developed a life-size dummy called the Copper Man to spare human volunteers of discomfort when testing the suit’s extremes. The dummy was 5 feet and 10 and a half inches tall, and covered with copper skin one-sixteenth inch thick. Its head, hands, torso and feet were connected by an electrical mesh that could take readings…
How the Amazing Copper Man & Electric Blankets Gave Birth to WWII High-Altitude Flying Suit
The majority of the 160,000 Allied troops that invaded occupied France on this day 70 years ago arrived on ships and landing vessels. But some 13,000 parachuted early on D-Day from planes flown by pilots who had already been fighting over Europe since 1940. View: Photos of the Day: WWII High-Altitude Flying Suit Their B-17…
Computers Flying Economy
Some private jets come equipped with master bedrooms, Lalique crystal fittings and gold-plated seat belt buckles. GE’s new Boeing 747, on the other hand, carries almost 900 miles of wiring and fiber optic cable. View: Photos of the Day: Boeing Jet is a Flying Data Machine with 900 Miles of Cable The plane, which arrived…
Photos of the Day: Boeing Jet is a Flying Data Machine with 900 Miles of Cable
Some private jets come equipped with master bedrooms, Lalique crystal fittings and gold-plated seat belt buckles. GE’s new Boeing 747, on the other hand, carries almost 900 miles of wiring and fiber optic cable. Read: Computers Flying Economy The GE90-115B engine, here attached to GE’s original 747 flying test bed, is the world’s most powerful…
Software Reads the Minds of Giant Subsea Machines
Blowout preventers, or BOPs, are incredibly complex machines that sit deep on the sea floor and serve as the last line of defense if something in the oil well goes wrong. These 250,000-pound, 60-foot steel behemoths have to be regularly pulled up, inspected, and serviced. As a rule of thumb, workers often replace as many…
A New Approach to Making Things
Hanging a picture in the living room can be a vexing experience involving just a hammer and a nail. Now imagine bolting a jet engine to the wing of a passenger plane. Maintenance crews use special metal brackets to safely mount and dismount the engines that weigh nearly 13,000 pounds. The brackets are reliable but…
Industrial Internet Consortium Will Make Machines and People Talk to Each Other
The Internet is no longer just about email, ecommerce or Twitter. “We are at an inflection point,” says Joe Salvo, manager of Complex Systems Engineering Laboratory at GE Global Research. “The next wave of productivity will connect brilliant machines and people.” But before that happens, they must find a common language. “It’s still like the…