Nearly 20 years ago, GE Aerospace lost out in a competition to power part of LATAM Airlines’ passenger air fleet. But what goes around sometimes eventually does come around. Case in point: This month, LATAM announced it is ordering five additional Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft, all of which it plans to switch from competitor engines to GEnx-1B engines, making Chile-based LATAM the first airline in Latin America to utilize the GEnx.

The GEnx engine family has surpassed the 50 million flight hour mark in less than 12 years, the fastest rate ever for a commercial widebody engine.

Anyone who visited the GE Aerospace chalet at the Paris Air Show, on the grounds of Le Bourget Airport, came away with three distinct impressions: The market for engines is growing, lean is working, and new technologies are on the rise. The GE Aerospace team also inked a number of contracts, announcing growth in its order book across jet engines, services, avionics, and digital offerings. The deals include more than 100 GEnx-1B engines, as well as 70 CFM LEAP-1A engines, 80 CFM LEAP-1B engines, and 37 CF34-8E engines, along with multiple service contracts.

The aviation industry made its long-awaited return to the Paris Air Show this week, the first since 2019. An impressive display of commercial, military, and business and general aviation aircraft lined the side of the Le Bourget Airport runway, many with GE Aerospace technology onboard.

The 2023 Paris Airshow is coming up very soon, and evaluation engineer, Alisha Davis-Kent, is going to represent GE Aerospace and give us a behind the scenes look at what happens during the airshow. As an evaluation engineer, Davis-Kent has a front row seat to GE’s specialized jet engine testing. Her role is to help coordinate development tests of commercial and military engines, gathering the engineering data that help certify jet engines and further the capabilities of flight.

The mechanics work for GE Aerospace’s On Wing Support (OWS) team just outside Cincinnati, one of eight such facilities across the globe — from London to Dubai to Seoul to Shanghai — that provide maintenance and repair capabilities for customers. At the heart of what they do: attention to safety and quality of service with the capability for rapid deployment. Depending on the urgency and level of repair needed, some team members will work on engines in the shop (off-wing) while others are in the field, servicing engines still installed on aircraft (on-wing).

GE Aerospace’s GEnx aircraft engines powered the industry’s first wide-body aircraft on a long-haul route using Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to India. Vistara, India’s full-service carrier and a joint venture of Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines, operated the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner ferry flight from Charleston, South Carolina, in the United States, to New Delhi, India, using a blend of 30% SAF with conventional jet fuel.

Air India announced on February 14 that it is buying 400 single-aisle and 70 twin-aisle commercial aircraft. To power the larger airliners — Boeing 787 and 777X twin-engine jets — the carrier signed an agreement with GE Aerospace for 40 GEnx-1B and 20 GE9X engines, plus engine services. Air India will also buy more than 800 LEAP engines from CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE and Safran Aircraft Engines, to outfit the smaller planes in the order, 210 Airbus A320/A321neo aircraft and 190 Boeing 737 MAX-family aircraft.

Air India, part of Tata Sons, has signed a firm order for 40 GEnx-1B and 20 GE9X engines, plus a multi-year TrueChoice™ engine services agreement. The deal was signed in coordination with the airline’s firm order for 20 Boeing 787 and 10 Boeing 777X aircraft.

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.”