Boeing just released the first pictures of the world’s largest twin-engine jet, the 777X, equipped with the world’s largest jet engine, the GE9X. The plane is scheduled for its maiden flight this year. The 777X will be “the most-efficient twin-engine jet in the world, with 12 percent lower fuel consumption and 10 percent lower operating…
GE Opens Wind Turbine Blade Test Center at NASA Rocket Factory
There are few places in the world like NASA’s rocket factory in New Orleans, where the U.S. space agency and its contractors are building the Space Launch System. It’s the most powerful rocket ever designed — and may one day take astronauts as far as Mars. Known as the Michoud Assembly Facility, the plant covers an…
The Panama Canal Expansion Used Enough Steel to Build 22 Eiffel Towers
The Cosco Shipping Panama freighter made history Sunday by being the first working ship to slip through the Panama Canal’s huge new locks. The expansion project swallowed enough steel to build 22 Eiffel Towers, cost $5.2 billion and took nine years to complete. It will allow the giant “New Panamax” class of container ships and…
The Industrial Internet Is Helping This Factory Evolve Better Products
The Next Sound-Barrier-Busting Passenger Jet Could Be Quietly Supersonic
The Concorde was the first and last supersonic jet in passenger service. But that claim comes with a caveat. The plane could accelerate above the speed of sound only over the ocean. The prospect of noisy sonic booms caused by the plane crossing the sound barrier forced pilots to hold back the throttle above towns…
What Happens When You Link 3D Printing & the Internet?
There are no dumb bricks in John Gordon’s world, only buildings with the potential to be intelligent. “If you deploy smart lights with sensors to gather data and digitize the energy system, you’ll end up with a nervous system running through the whole building,” he says. “The benefits in terms of savings and productivity can…
What Happens When You Link 3D Printing & the Internet?
The industrial fringe of Greenville, South Carolina, isn’t the most obvious place to go looking for a glimpse of things to come. But tucked behind railroad tracks and boxy factories you’ll find GE Power’s new Advanced Manufacturing Works, which officially opened Friday. It’s changing how humans make things. Larger than two football fields and emblazoned…
Into Thin Air: The Lofty Side of Jet Engine Testing
New GE jet engines must pass a litany of hardships on the test stand — from bird strikes to hailstorms — before they get to take to the air. But even then they are not finished. One of the steps required to win FAA certification actually looks like fun — though the engines might object.…
Aviation Software Center Takes Flight in Dubai
GE Aviation’s latest technology center sits tucked away from the hustle and bustle of Dubai International Airport, inside the Dubai Airport Free Zone and just steps away from the executive jet terminal, a location handy for easy access. From the outside, the place looks like just another glass-and-concrete office tower that sprouted in this desert…
The World’s Largest Jet Engine Shows Off Composite Curves
Nick Kray is no Picasso, yet his work is on display at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. A decade ago, MoMA’s design collection picked up a composite fan blade from the GE90 jet engine that Kray helped create. The blade’s onyx black sinuous curves are pleasing to look at, but for Kray they are…
Photos of the Day: Highlights from the Dubai Air Show
The 2015 Dubai Air Show opened for business on Sunday. Cities in the United Arab Emirates like Dubai and Abu Dhabi have become major aviation hubs over the last two decades and carriers based in the Middle East such as Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways have become powerful global players. As a result, the Dubai…
GE to Mass-Produce Advanced Space Age Material in the U.S. for the First Time
People have been making things from iron and steel for more than 3,000 years. Machines built from their alloys have landed on the Moon and reached the very bottom of the ocean. But engineers like GE Aviation’s Sanjay Correa now believe that “we’re running out of headroom in metals.” He and his team at GE say…
Photos of the Day: An Inside Look at a GE’s Gas Turbine Plant
There are places in the world that make us feel small and force us to marvel at the skills and ambitions of their architects and engineers. They include cathedrals in Europe, NASA’s Cape Canaveral rocket launch pad or the Panama Canal. GE’s gas turbine plant in Greenville, S.C., may not be on everyone’s list. But…
The Story of the First American Jet Engine
For most people, Thomas Edison is the man who came up with the first practical light bulb. But Edison was also an inveterate entrepreneur who parlayed his patents into new industries and enduring businesses. Take GE, the result of an 1892 merger between his Edison Electric Co. and Thomson-Houston Electric Co. It has since grown…
Next-Gen Medical Materials May Cure Hydraulic Fracturing’s Need for Sand
William Blake could see a world in a grain of sand. Sumitra Rajagopalan, founder and CEO of the Canadian smart materials company Bioastra Technologies Inc., has a similar disposition. At its core, Bioastra is a health and medical devices company working with some of the largest businesses in the industry to commercialize advanced biomaterials for…
Stunt Pilot Breaks the Laws of Gravity
Sean D. Tucker may not be a household name, but within the aviation community he could well be Michael Jackson doing the moonwalk with his red airplane. Tucker is a member of the Living Legends of Flight, an elite group of aviators and astronauts that includes Jimmy Doolittle, “Chuck” Yeager, and John Glenn. On…
Inside the World’s Largest Gathering of Aircraft Lovers
There seem to be more planes parked on the green grounds of Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., than there are cloverleaves in the grass beneath their wheels. The airport is the home of the annual EAA AirVentures air show – the world’s largest gathering for flying enthusiasts (see below). Here, all the planes, their…
World’s Largest Aircraft Gathering to Take Place
When Paul Poberezny launched the Experimental Aircraft Association in 1953, he could run the gathering of flying enthusiasts and do-it-yourself airplane builders from the basement of his suburban home in Milwaukee, Wis. The group’s first fly-in, which took place later that year, attracted 22 planes and 150 visitors. “We were amateurs,” said Poberezny, who died…