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SCLA a player in electric jet engine: Luxury jet by Boeing will be tested in High Desert
[May 27, 2007]

SCLA a player in electric jet engine: Luxury jet by Boeing will be tested in High Desert


(Daily Press (Victorville, CA) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 27--VICTORVILLE -- Since the beginning of commercial air travel, engines have been used not only to power the aircraft, but to pressurize and heat the cabin as well.

No more.

As Boeing be gins assembling its electrically powered Dreamliner 787, the result will be a tremendous fuel savings -- reducing costs by about 20 percent -- said John Hardell, plant manager of GE Aviation's flight testing operations based in Victorville.



Southern California Logistics Airport plays a key role in the testing of the new engine, called GEnx (pronounced "gen-EX"). Testing here is set to wrap up June 5.

"It went pretty good," Hardell said. "Everybody's amazed. It went better than we thought. For a development engine, you always have hiccups, but everybody's doing a great job."


T h e G E t e a m i s fly i n g the new engine with a modified 747 to test it in realistic conditions.

"A lot of data collection goes on," said Deb Case, spokeswoman for GE in Cincinnati. "We do tests here in a site in Ohio on test stands. But when the engines are at an altitude, you can tell performance data when it will actually be flying in the air."

For SCLA's business development director, Jim Worsham, the engine is revolutionary.

"I personally think that this GEnx engine is the most advanced engine in the world," said Worsham, an engineer who spent nearly 31 years working for GE. "It is pioneering a new concept for fuel saving."

GEnx is not the only engine that will go in the Dreamliner; Rolls Royce, which has been making aircraft engines for years, is creating an engine that will be a choice for potential customers.

"Competition is a wonderful thing," Worsham said.

So far, the plane has received 568 orders from 44 airlines, according to Boeing, with a claim that it is the fastest-selling airplane in aviation history.

GE expects to get engine certification by the Federal Aviation Administration later this year.

Then the Dreamliner and the engine will be certified together, Case said.

Copyright (c) 2007, Daily Press, Victorville, Calif.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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