Japan Airlines (JAL) this week selected the GE’s GEnx engine to power its 30 firm, 20 option Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. The value of the firm engine order is more than $700 million. Engine deliveries begin in 2008.
"The selection completes an extensive two-year technical evaluation by JAL, and we are very honoured that the GEnx engine has been chosen," said Tom Brisken, general manager of the GEnx project.
With the JAL selection, GEnx engines to date have been selected to power 84 firm Boeing 787 aircraft orders. In total, the new GEnx engine has been selected to power more than 200 aircraft. Those GEnx orders are valued at more than $5 billion.
The GEnx is based on GE90 architecture and will succeed the CF6 engine family, GE's best-selling engine on wide-body aircraft.
GE says the GEnx provides significantly better fuel burn and payload performance than CF6 engines. It is the world's only jet engine with a front fan case and fan blades made of composites, which provides for greater engine durability, weight reduction and lower operating costs.
The GEnx will operate with 18 fan blades (50 percent fewer than the CF6) at noise levels lower than any large GE commercial engine currently in service. The GEnx also features a new combustor for efficient fuel mixing before ignition, resulting in lower NOx levels.
The first full GEnx engine will go to test in 2006, with engine certification scheduled for 2007.
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Note to Evil Villain/Dave 2020. Thatcher was PM for _11_ years, from 1979 to 1990 so no one under the age of 34 was even born when she left office....