GE Aviation is approaching Thai Airways International as well as about 20 carriers worldwide to offer its latest aircraft engine - GEnx - for the Boeing 787 and Boeing 7478, claiming it to be the best engine for low fuel consumption and emissions.
In photo: Tom Wygle (2nd left), Vice President, Asia-Pacific, GE Aviation, presented the 25 th Anniversary plaque from GE to celebrate the CF6-80C2 engines that powered the Airbus 300-600 aircraft. Captain Montree Jumrieng (centre), Executive Vice President of THAI's Technical Department, received the plaque.
The company is also developing the engine to be compatible with other types of aircraft.
Tom Brisken, general manager for widebody customer strategies, said in Bangkok yesterday that Thailand's national carrier, which has been a customer of GE Aviation for 25 years, planned to increase its fleet.
Thus GE Aviation expects to maintain the partnership with THAI.
He said many carriers globally were ordering Boeing 787s, which the US aircraft manufacturer calls Dreamliner.
The present orders will be delivāļ?ered by 2017. At present, GE Aviation has secured contracts to supply 900 GEnx engines for Boeing 787s worldwide, accounting for 62 per cent of the engines to be installed in Dreamliners.
It has also had 432 orders for the GEnx for Boeing 747s.
The first Boeing 747 engine will be delivered in July, while the first GEnx for a Dreamliner will arrive in September. Brisken said the strength of the GEnx for the Boeing 787 was fuel efficiency, low emission of carbon dioxide and oxides of nitrogen, and longer flight hours than other engines.
Tight regulations are forcing airāļ?craft to reduce emissions to protect the environment. Thus airlines will benefit in the long term from using an engine that can reduce emissions and fly much longer than in the past without requiring major maintenance.
GE Aviation claims that GEnx engines in a Boeing 787 can help improve fuel efficiency by 15 per cent compared with its existing engine, GE's CF680C2. Meanwhile, flight hours are 20 per cent longer than the CF680C2 before maintenance, and the engine uses 30 per cent fewer parts.
The innovative twinannular preswirl combustor can reduce oxidesofnitrogen (NOx) emission by 60 per cent below the regulatory limit, while regulated gases can be decreased by 90 per cent.
Brisken said GE Aviation spent US$1.5 billion (Bt45.5 billion) to develop the GEnx, which stands for General Electric Next Generation. In 2009, it allocated $1.8 billion for research and development, accounting for 10 per cent of its revenue of $18.7 billion. The company expects to spend $2 billion for R&D this year, partly on the development of GEnx to be compatible with other types of aircraft.
The company last year manufactured 18,900 engines to serve carriers globally, and expects the number to grow to 22,300 by 2015.
Tom Wygle, GE Aviation's vice president for AsiaPacific, said the GEnx was also compatible with green jet fuel, and it has tested it with such fuel to prove that it will not affect the engine in the long term. Hence this is an alternative for carriers if they want to use green jet in their aircraft.
