Most Powerful Aircraft Engine Ever Getting Ready to Power World's Largest Twin Jet
The 777X is described by Boeing as "the world's largest and most efficient twin-engine jet," and there are several reasons behind that claim.
It's been more than a decade now since American aviation behemoth Boeing started working on the 777x, and the pieces are finally starting to fall into place. After a number of delays and missed deadlines, the company seems ready to bring the widebody variant of the 777 onto the market in 2026, and the plane's engine supplier, GE Aerospace, is on board with that as well.
The 777X is described by Boeing as "the world's largest and most efficient twin-engine jet," and there are several reasons behind that claim.
The plane will be available in three versions, namely 777-8, 777-8 Freighter, and 777-9. The entry-level 777-8, if it can be called that, excels in terms of range, as it can travel a distance of over 10,000 miles (16,190 km), while the 777-9 brings to the table a simple massive passenger capacity: 426 passengers.
Responsible for keeping the plane in the air will be a pair of brand-new engines made by GE Aerospace, called GE9X. Befitting the world's largest and most efficient twin-engine jet, they too are the largest and most powerful commercial aircraft engine ever built.
I'm talking about the GE9X because its maker announced that the production lines for the powerplant started rolling, meaning the time when the engine will meet the plane in its commercial form is upon us. And it also means it's about time we had a closer look at this incredible piece of engineering.
Going through the GE data about the engine I was a bit surprised by the way the GE9X kept being described. The company says the engine is so powerful that it can easily generate a miniature Category 5 hurricane in its wake, its diameter is larger than the fuselage of a Boeing 737, and it generally is better in many ways than what came before it. Here's what all of this means.
I'll start with the engine's physical structure, and tell you it comes in at a diameter of 134 inches. That's 3.4 meters, a huge size that helps it achieve a higher bypass ratio: 10:1., to go with a 60:1 overall pressure ratio.
The engine relies on a total of 16 fourth-generation composite fan blades, six blades less than in the GE90 engine. This design allows for maximum airflow and minimum drag, which in turn impact fuel consumption and noise, but also a 59 percent reduction in the required cooling air.
Since I mentioned fuel consumption, I need to tell you the new powerplant should deliver a five percent improvement compared to the best twin-aisle aircraft out there, and a ten percent improvement over the GE90-115B engine. Additionally, NOx levels should be half those of competing engines and 55% lower than regulatory limits.
GE did a bit of math and says the new unit could save airlines up to 3,000 metric tons of fuel each year, equating to roughly 9,500 metric tons of CO2, or the equivalent of some 2,060 cars taken off the roads.
And now, for power levels. The GE9X is certified for 105,000 pounds of thrust, but it can easily reach as much as 134,000 pounds of thrust, which by all accounts is a record in the world of aviation, the highest thrust any commercial jet engine is capable of achieving.
Photo: GE
Despite being so potent, the unit is surprisingly quiet. In fact, says GE, "per pound of static thrust produced, the GE9X is the quietest turbofan engine GE Aerospace has ever produced," but does not provide numbers so we could better understand what that means.
Each of the engines currently being made by GE will be shipped to Ohio for testing, and they'll then move to Everett, Washington, where final assembly of the Boeing 777X is being handled. Tests, we're told, are grueling, and have been so ever since the powerplant was being developed.
In all, the technology has been trough ordeals a normal aircraft engine would encounter in three years of normal operation. GE says that 27,000 cycles and 17,000 hours of testing, both on the ground and on-wing, have been completed as part of the "most rigorous testing program of any GE Aerospace commercial engine to date."
Some 1,600 of those cycles involved dust ingestion in a bit for the company to simulate operation in the harshest environments on the planet. The engine was even flown on the company's 747 Flying Test Bed for more than 400 hours.
As said, the 777X is expected to enter service next year, and with it so is the GE9X. To make sure nothing goes wrong, GE says it will invest over $1 billion to "increase capacity, enhance training, and add advanced tooling" in maintenance, repair, and overhaul locations around the world.
We'll keep an eye on this story, seeing how it's not everyday the world gets a potentially record-breaking aircraft, and report back when we know more about the launch of the 777x.
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