General Electric : The GE Brief – November 15, 2018

There are few places in the world like NASA's rocket factory in New Orleans, where the U.S. space agency is working on a rocket that may one day take astronauts as far as Mars. Now, LM Wind Power, a subsidiary of GE Renewable Energy that makes wind turbine blades, will harness the site's mojo to go where sustainable energy has never gone before.

All that jazz:The GE unit opened its Technology Center for the Americasin a cavernous concrete and steel hangar onsite. Workers will use it to design and test wind turbine blades that are longer, stronger, lighter and more affordable - all key factors in keeping wind power competitive. 'TCA boasts some of the most advanced composites manufacturing space in the industry,' says James Martin, the center's director. 'We can handle some of the largest structures on the planet, we've got access to a deep water port, and we have relationships with local universities. New Orleans is going through a technology renaissance moment and it's attracting a lot of talent.'

Read about the technology centerhere.

The Federal Aviation Administration has issued a 'change in design' approval to allow GE Aviation to replace a conventionally manufactured part with a 3D-printed equivalent in jet engines that power the latest generation of Boeing 747s.

Fit to print:GE made the original part, a bracket that holds the engine cover open during service,from a solid block of metal by milling and other conventional methods. Switching to 3D-printing, also known as additive manufacturing, allowed the company to reduce material waste by as much as 90 percent, and also lower the bracket's weight by 10 percent. As wepreviously reported, this is also the first time GE has designed a mass-production process for a line of its own 3D printers made by Concept Laser, a German engineering company it acquired in 2016. GE Aviation anticipates the first GEnx engines installed with the 3D-printed brackets will be shipped in January.

Read more about the part here.

Last weekend, the world remembered 100 years since the end of World War I, a conflict that changed the map of Europe and left an estimated 17 million people dead. But amid its devastation and disruption, the war also accelerated the rise of new industries like aviation.

Mobilizing engineers: The war was the first large military conflict that involved planes. In November 1917 - seven months after the U.S. entered the war alongside the U.K., France and Russia - GE President E.W. Rice received a note from the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, the predecessor of NASA. The U.S. government wanted to develop its own version of a turbosupercharger, a mechanical device designed to fill the cylinders of a piston engine with more air than it would typically ingest, and boost the performance of warplanes powered by the Liberty aircraft engine, which was central to America's air combat effort. A GE gas turbine designer named Sanford Moss stepped forward, did the job, and effectively launched GE into the aviation business.

Today, GE Aviation, which recorded $27 billion in revenue in 2017, is one of the world's largest manufacturers of aircraft engines for passenger and military jets, as well as helicopters and turboprop engines. There are some 25,000 jet engines built by GE and CFM International, a 50-50 joint venture between GE Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines, in service. As a result, an aircraft powered by GE or CFM engines takes flight every 2 seconds.

Read more about GE Aviation's historyhere.

- QUOTE OF THE DAY -

'You are already getting some very large turbines, and it's not going to stop there. As time goes on, we will continue to push the technology envelope, like what we are doing here in Louisiana. It will enable us to go taller, go longer, and to go with bigger name plates.'

- Anne McEntee, chief digital officer for GE Renewable Energy

Quote: GE Reports. Image: Getty Images.

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