Glenn Culbertson retired recently from GE Aerospace, leaving behind a legacy that fortified a culture of safety for his colleagues. An airplane accident in 1989 shaped his work and he spent the next four decades relentlessly focused on protecting the flying public.

As the last Boeing 747 rolls out, Dave Kircher, General Manager of the GEnx program, reflects on the Queen Of The Skies. “In aviation everybody can probably tell you two things: the first time they flew anything and the first time they flew on a 747.”

With 2022 on the horizon, here’s a look back at some of GE Aviation’s top Commercial and Business Aviation stories of 2021.

GE’s CF6 engine celebrated 50 years of service last week. We asked former CF6 leaders to reflect on the engine and what it means to GE Aviation and to them personally.

GE Aviation’s CF6 engine family reaches 50 years of revenue service.

The CF6 engine celebrates its 50th anniversary of revenue service on August 5, 2021. The engine family has accumulated more than 460 million engine flight hours.

Along with the retirement of FedEx MD DC-10-10F aircraft in June comes the retirement of GE’s last CF6-6 engines, which reached nearly 50 years in service.

At the end of February, a Boeing 767 passenger jet, powered by two GE CF6 engines, flew to Antarctica to pick up a group of scientists returning home from the Troll research station.

Forest fires ravaged the western United States this year. 10 Tanker, an air carrier company based in New Mexico that specializes in aerial firefighting, used four DC-10 airliners, powered by GE’s CF6 engines, to combat the destruction. Read our interview with 10 Tanker.

Along with 24/7 customer support, GE Aviation teams in Cincinnati and Shanghai monitor engine data to help predict and avoid issues.