GE Citizenship

GE Aviation’s purpose statement—“We invent the future of flight, lift people up and bring them home safely”—is a lens through which Aviation employees make business decisions and measure progress.

The purpose statement is also a source of pride for many employees. During her flights over Iraq, Jenna Dolan, a military systems program manager and former fighter jet pilot in the U.S. Marine Corps, made life-or-death decisions, and finds that those experiences relate to the work she now does at GE. “Our products are responsible for keeping people safe,” says Dolan.

Developing the purpose statement inevitably led GE Aviation to enhance its engagement strategies to connect with more employees in new ways. A company’s culture is one of its most important assets, and ours is one in which people feel valued and empowered to tackle tough problems every day. GE has long challenged employees to contribute ideas—a modern variation of the simple suggestion box—thereby helping to solve day-to-day problems by promoting teamwork and innovation. 

For instance, Mike Rucker, an Aviation engineer, came up with an idea for coating airfoils used in jet engines with aluminide to help combat corrosion and oxidation from high temperatures. Rucker worked with a team to improve the manufacturing of the turbine casing, which had been using older, ineffective materials. Michael Eisenecker, a senior engineer, said a combination of “determination, cooperation and ingenuity” across three teams led to the adoption of a more stable manufacturing process for the turbine casing, and the installation of new workstations, and ultimately played a huge role in eliminating manufacturing losses for the part by more than 90%.

Focusing on our customers

GE Aviation has evolved over the past 10 years, moving beyond engines and services to adjacencies such as aviation systems. With changes in the global economy, GE customers have been forced to be even more efficient with their capital by leveraging the latest digital and social tools to help monitor the health of their aircraft.

One of our business initiatives that focuses on better serving our customers is the Customer Advocacy Council, which guides reorientation of the business to better understand and deliver on customers’ needs.

“By engaging all areas of the Aviation business, we can solve some difficult issues that impact our customers,” says Bill Fitzgerald, vice president and general manager of Commercial Engine Operations.

The council takes executive engagement and relationship-building with customers to the next level by focusing on their specific dynamics and initiatives.

“The team has come together very well, and we are focused on what matters most to our customers,” said Dave Kircher, general manager of Customer and Product Support and leader of the Customer Advocacy Council. “Now we are engaging all Aviation employees to think about how their actions impact our customers and what they can do to deliver more customer value.”

Working in our communities

In 2012, nearly 21,000 GE Volunteers at GE Aviation locations around the world contributed more than 150,000 hours of service in the communities where they live and work. Volunteers completed more than 1,600 projects that focused on education, community-building, the environment, and health and human services, and supported GE Foundation initiatives such as Developing Futures™ in Education and Developing Health™. 

Developing Futures

The GE Foundation is in its second phase of collaboration with the Cincinnati Public Schools (CPS) with a $5.3 million, three-year extension grant to implement Common Core State Standards to provide students with the knowledge and skills they need to succeed. 

“Nowhere is this more important than in our urban core, where students have historically underperformed compared to their counterparts nationwide,” says Mary Ronan, superintendent of CPS. “We are deeply appreciative of the GE Foundation’s commitment to our students.”

The grant’s success has relied heavily on strengthening expertise in math and science instruction as well as leadership development for teachers and principals—some of which has been initiated by GE Aviation executives.

To grow leadership capacity, Mohammad Ehteshami, vice president of New Product Introduction Operations at GE, has served as an executive coach with a CPS principal since 2011. The principal has attended GE management and leadership training sessions to focus on skills such as time management, delegation and empowering others.

“The main goal is to create a strong school culture for the benefit of the students,” says Ehteshami.

Building more-efficient products and services

At GE Aviation, our team is committed to ensuring that new products further reduce fuel burn, emissions and noise, while continuing the tradition of producing some of the world’s most efficient, reliable and durable engines, systems and services offerings.

The Green Skies of Peru project is a collaborative effort among South American airline LAN, GE Aviation, Peru’s air navigation service provider CORPAC and Peruvian aviation officials. The demonstration phase of the project began in February 2012 when LAN flew the region’s first continuously guided flight from take-off to landing using GE’s Performance-based Navigation services. The procedures save participating airlines on average 19 track miles, 6.3 minutes, 450 pounds of fuel and 1,420 pounds of CO₂ emissions per flight.

“We are very proud and happy to have supported this project, in coordination with GE Aviation and the airspace authorities of Peru, that will benefit all the airlines and significantly improve the safety and flight management in the skies of Lima,” said Carlos Schacht, central technology manager for LAN Peru. “The operational excellence, service to passengers and care for the environment are our strategic pillars of sustainability and are part of this initiative.”

To see a visualization of this continuously guided flight from take-off to landing using Performance-based Navigation technology, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai8G-OBxXvo.

Other GE Aviation products include:

CFM Tech Insertion

Aircraft equipped with CFM56 Tech Insertion engines produce lower emissions while flying at significantly lower operating cost compared with those with baseline CFM56-5B/P and -7B engines. Learn more

CFM LEAP™

The CFM LEAP aircraft engine is being designed to provide significant reductions in fuel burn, noise and NO_x emissions compared with the current CFM engine models in this aircraft class—at equivalent levels of maintenance cost and reliability. Learn more

ClearCore™ Engine Wash

GE Aviation’s ClearCore Engine Wash system is a mobile unit that enables airlines to quickly and easily clean surface contaminants from inner aircraft engine components to maximize engine operating efficiency. Learn more

F138-GE-100 Propulsion Systems

GE Aviation’s F138-GE-100 Propulsion System is being used to re-engine aircraft for the U.S. Air Force’s C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft modernization program. In comparison with the pre-retrofit model, the new engine offers improved efficiency and reliability and increased thrust. Learn more

Fuel & Carbon Solutions

GE Aviation’s Fuel and Carbon Solutions offers consulting solutions designed to help airlines optimize jet-fuel use while reducing associated operating costs and CO₂ emissions. Learn more

GE90-115B

While it is the most powerful commercial engine in service, the GE90-115B is also designed to be more fuel-efficient than its closest competitor, resulting in lower CO₂ emissions and fuel costs. Learn more

GEnx

By utilizing advanced GE propulsion technology, GEnx engines are designed to reduce fuel consumption, associated CO₂ and NO_x emissions, noise, and operating costs compared with the engines that they replace. Learn more

Passport^™ Integrated Propulsion Systems

By using advanced engine technology, and designing the engine, nacelle, thrust reverser and ancillary hardware as a uniquely integrated system, GE and Bombardier expect to reduce design redundancies and more fully optimize overall aircraft performance. Learn more

RNP Services

GE’s RNP (Required Navigation Performance) flight paths help airlines achieve reductions in fuel burn and associated CO₂ emissions, and provide improvements in airport access. Learn more

Flight Management System

Our Flight Management System enables an aircraft to fly on the most efficient path, helping to improve on-time arrival performance while reducing fuel consumption, noise and emissions. Learn more

Building more-efficient facilities

GE Aviation has been recognized with the Lindbergh Foundation’s Corporate Award for Balance. This honor is bestowed on organizations whose concern for the environment and dedication to improving quality of life are demonstrated through their business practices. 

As part of GE’s ecomagination initiative, GE Aviation is committed to reducing its absolute greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water usage and energy usage. Real-time monitoring has enabled several sites to view live consumption via their Internet site and make real-time adjustments to operations, and, for example, has saved the Wales, U.K., team over 5,000 tonnes of CO₂ and over £800,000 in one year. 

Another example of how GE Aviation sites are working to be more energy-efficient is the Durham, North Carolina, facility. This site boasts a seven-acre solar power field that generates enough renewable energy to provide one third of the facility’s electrical power during daylight hours.

The field produces 700 kW of power for this facility, or enough energy to power 200 homes. The solar power field is helping GE Aviation Durham reduce its CO₂ emissions by more than 400 metric tons (MT) a year, which is the equivalent of removing 77 cars from the road each year.  

“The solar power field is one of more than 200 energy-reduction projects that GE Aviation Durham has implemented in the last few years,” said Mike Wagner, plant manager of GE Aviation Durham. “These projects have enabled the site to reduce its electricity bill by 30% while increasing its production level by 50%.”

Learn more about how GE Aviation’s Durham facility is harnessing the power of solar.

GE’s longtime leadership in jet propulsion is reflected in its growing base of engines in airline service. The installed base of engines produced by GE, CFM and the Engine Alliance has reached 25,000 engines and will surpass 30,000 engines by 2015. GE is also investing aggressively in new-product introductions in both its Engine and its Aviation Systems businesses. In addition, production rates are expected to grow from approximately 3,000 commercial and military engine deliveries in 2011 to 3,300 in 2012 and 3,600 in 2013.

Executing on our commitments

Key GE Aviation technology initiatives include:

GEnx engine

Japan Airlines (JAL) began operating the first GEnx-1B-powered Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The GEnx is the fastest-selling engine family in GE Aviation history, incorporating advanced technologies and material that dramatically improve fuel-efficiency, performance, emissions and durability. Revenue-sharing participants are IHI Corporation of Japan, Avio SpA of Italy, Volvo Aero of Sweden, MTU of Germany, TechSpace Aero of Belgium, Snecma (SAFRAN Group) of France and Samsung Techwin of Korea.

LEAP engine

In 2011, orders for the LEAP totaled more than 3,000 units at CFM International, the 50/50 joint company of France’s Snecma and GE Aviation. Together with orders for the popular CFM56 engines, orders and commitments at CFM totaled a record 4,556 in 2011, a figure three times current yearly output. Orders and commitments came in from companies around the globe, including AirAsia, Garuda, Air China, SAS, Virgin America, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines and Lion Air.

RNP (Required Navigation Performance)

RNP is the most advanced form of performance-based navigation (PBN), using GPS and onboard technology to guide aircraft to fly precisely defined trajectories without relying on ground-based radio-navigation signals. This technology helps combat a serious global challenge, as air traffic increases and skies become more and more congested. Airservices Australia is implementing RNP at 28 airports nationwide, and expects it will save operators nearly 12.5 million gallons of jet fuel each year. 

GE38 engine

In 2011, GE delivered the first GE38 engine for the Sikorsky CH-53K Ground Test Vehicle, capping two years of successful testing and demonstration of the engine’s ability to provide the increased mission capability required for U.S. Marine Corps (USMC) missions. In all, GE38 testing will analyze five ground-test engines that will accumulate more than 5,000 engine test hours, plus 20 flight-test engines for the Sikorsky CH-53K development aircraft—the world’s most powerful maritime helicopter. 

Positioned for growth

The future of flight depends on raising the bar to create more efficient and cleaner propulsion solutions. GE Aviation invests $1 billion annually in research and development to develop technologies that provide better fuel-efficient and cost-effective solutions. With new-product development efforts and current product deliveries at historic levels, GE Aviation is expanding its manufacturing and R&D footprints in the United States with approximately $580 million in plant, equipment and tooling investments during 2011–2012 across its network of 55 U.S. operators.

 “We are a global enterprise with operations worldwide,” says David Joyce, president and CEO of GE Aviation. “But our expanding business has driven the investment in U.S. plants and equipment.”

The construction of a new research and development lab and the opening of two new GE Aviation sites reflect the company’s growing collaborations with U.S. communities:

Ellisville, Mississippi

In April 2013, GE Aviation opened a 300,000-square-foot factory in Ellisville, Mississippi, to manufacture advanced composite components for jet engines and aircraft systems. The facility is expected to create 250 manufacturing jobs by 2016. GE Aviation’s first composites factory in Mississippi, which opened in Batesville in 2008, now employs more than 300 workers.

Auburn, Alabama

Also in April 2013, GE Aviation opened a 300,000-square-foot factory in Auburn, Alabama, to produce advanced machined parts for commercial and military engines . GE’s goal is to employ more than 300 people when the plant is at full production later this decade.

Dayton, Ohio

On the University of Dayton campus, construction is underway on GE’s new Electrical Power Integrated Systems Research and Development Center (EPISCENTER). The 120,000-square-foot center will collaborate with university researchers on advanced computer modeling and simulation and analysis of advanced, dynamic electric power systems and controls. The center will be operational in 2013.