Dreaming Big: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the New GE Aerospace Brand Film

A stop at hair and makeup isn’t typically part of the GE Aerospace workday. But little was routine for two GE Aerospace engineers who helped create “The Biggest Dream,” the company’s new brand film. 

Debuting this month, “The Biggest Dream” depicts the next generation of innovators — kids of today — collaborating with GE Aerospace engineers as they harness the power of imagination to shape the future of flight. The brand film captures the act of creative thinking and serves as an ode to GE Aerospace’s 106-year legacy of empowering bright minds to bring amazing new ideas to life. 

Roman Seele and Maysaa Rizk, colleagues at the GE Aerospace Advanced Aviation Technology (AAT) Center of Excellence, in Munich, Germany, were on hand to serve as expert consultants, providing real-world engineering details from their real-life workplace. They also appear in the film, joining a cast of professional actors.

Along with U.S.-based engineer Craig Higgins, all three work on some of the most innovative technologies in aerospace, including those being developed as part of the CFM RISE program. A demonstration program of CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, the RISE program is advancing open fan technologies for a future commercial aircraft engine that prioritizes safety, durability, and efficiency, aiming to be 20% more fuel efficient than current engines.

It’s a tall order, they acknowledge, but they have a vision, one shared with thousands of collaborators at sites around the world. As “The Biggest Dream” conveys, that’s what it takes to accomplish the extraordinary.

“We are committed to the future of flight,” says Rizk. “We believe in it, and we want others to believe. With innovation, nothing is impossible.”

Formulas for Success

Creating “The Biggest Dream” involved two days of filming, along with five weeks of lightning-speed post-production work. Editing teams used computer-assisted visual effects (VFX) to complete a magical final scene. (Spoiler alert: It features a giant paper airplane, roughly the size of an actual passenger plane, launching gracefully into the air.) 

Much of the film shoot took place at Circa, a domed structure near Amsterdam Schiphol Airport that once served as the National Aviation Museum of the Netherlands (aka the Luchtvaartmuseum Aviodrome). Set designers transformed the light-filled space into an engineering “innovation lab” complete with transparent dry erase boards, which Seele and Rizk covered with mathematical equations. 

“We found formulas that are fundamental, that you might actually use in a brainstorming session,” Seele says. “The formula governing the principle of propulsive efficiency is specifically important in the CFM RISE program’s Open Fan technology.” 

An open, or unducted, fan — a key component in the company’s efforts to reinvent the future of flight and a significant change in the world of engine design — operates without a heavy nacelle, so it can be made much larger with less drag, Seele explains. “The general idea is that you can take in more air and accelerate it less quickly, making the overall process more efficient,” he says. 

“Unducted fan technologies were originally envisioned in the 1980s, but we’ve made some very significant changes and advancements in the technology since then,” says Higgins, one of the engine architects for the Open Fan. Although he doesn’t appear in the brand film, Higgins is part of the team developing the Open Fan’s underlying structure, and he has played a critical role in moving the game-changing concept forward. “The big unlock for us has been figuring out a way to keep the efficiency benefits that bring the fuel-burn advantage while also working to reduce the noise, the weight, and the complexity of the engine,” he says. “We’ve come up with a concept that we’re very excited about.”

Seeing that concept celebrated in “The Biggest Dream” makes this an important moment for Higgins, who has worked at GE Aerospace and in the aviation industry in numerous capacities over the past 40 years. “The value that the RISE program will bring to the flying public, the environment, the airlines, and to advancing the efficiency and reducing the cost of aviation — it’s the pinnacle of my career,” he says. 

Eagle-eyed viewers will notice detailed paper engines throughout “The Biggest Dream,” which were created in consultation with skilled paper artists. Viewers should also keep their eyes peeled for a scale model of an Open Fan engine, an addition that inspired questions from curious non-engineers on the set. Seele and Rizk were only too happy to talk about their work, as well as the immense team effort being made by everyone involved in the RISE program, which involves advances being made on a range of projects — from hybrid electric power systems and adaptive cycle engines to high-pressure turbines and durable compact engine cores — aided by the world’s most powerful supercomputers.

“People were commenting about how passionate we seemed,” says Rizk. “I am always going to be excited around a RISE engine model. There’s no way you’re going to stop this excitement.”

Next-Gen Innovators, Next-Gen Dreams

The kids in the film are the real stars. They represent the young minds that will one day take aerospace engineering to even higher levels. For the engineers involved in the film, the young peoples’ curiosity and openness to new ideas while filming struck a chord.

Seeing the kids playing with paper airplanes was particularly meaningful for Rizk, who recalls being asked to build them and film them in flight when she was a student. “I got this flashback to when I was at university, and I was so passionate. I never thought I would be doing what I do today,” she says. “I thought to myself, This is really how it starts. Big ideas start as simple ones.”

While still waiting to see the film’s final cut, both Seele and Rizk expressed excitement at the story “The Biggest Dream” will be telling audiences.

“I want people to see that at GE Aerospace we are committed to the future of flight — to a better, more innovative future,” says Rizk. “It’s not only for us, but also for future generations.”

Seele adds another powerful takeaway. “What we’re working on now will be real someday,” he says.