The massive, futuristic GE90 engine, touted in the 90s as the world's largest and most powerful jet engine, had become an embarrassing commercial failure by 1998.
Launched in 1990 to great fanfare, the GE90 came last in a three-engine battle against Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to power the new Boeing 777 aircraft.
Despite technological innovations, including aviation's first carbon fiber blades, the GE90 program faced continual technical and financial setbacks. Some major airlines considered the engine too expensive and risky for the 777, designed to fly over the Pacific Ocean with just two engines. GE hoped for other aircraft applications for the GE90, but they never materialized.
Problems worsened in 1998, when GE took a $275 million loss after canceling a development program on an the GE90 to make the engine capable of 102000-pound thrust for the 777-300ER.
The downfall of the previously heralded marvel of jet propulsion technology was made regrettable when Jack Welch, then corporate president of GE, wrote to an executive at GE Aviation: “The GE90 is dead, put a stake through its heart”.
Even the GE90's launch customer, British Airways, switched to a Rolls-Royce engine for future 777s.
However, GE Aviation President Jim McNerney and his Evendale, Ohio-based team saw the GE90 in a very different light. And their doggedness would change the history of jet propulsion.
McNerney inherited the GE90's problems. He became president of GE Aviation in 1997 after leading several GE operations. Although he was not a propulsion engineer, he trusted his technical leaders at Evendale. They were firm believers in the long-term potential of their massive, beleaguered turbofan.
On the one hand, the GE90's fuel efficiency has quietly drawn praise from operators of the extended-range 777-200ER, which entered service in 1997. And for the 777-300 variant, the GE90 fared better than its competitors.
In late 1998, GE Aviation leaders traveled the world to generate enthusiasm from several major airlines, most notably Air , for a proposed new GE90 to produce the landmark 115.000 pounds of thrust for the 777-300ER.
Boeing's dissatisfaction with GE's initial proposal for an exclusive engine contract on the larger 777s did not stop McNerney's team. Although frustrated by the GE90, Welch agreed to an even larger GE90 engine if Boeing awarded a single engine supply contract for the 777-300ER.
Eight months of negotiations with Boeing followed. These negotiations involved a range of GE leaders, including Welch, McNerney, vice presidents Chuck Chadwell and Herb Depp, GE90 program general manager Chaker Chahrour, and negotiator Robert Conboy.
As this intense activity unfolded, P&W and Rolls-Royce also proposed higher thrust engines to compete for a longer range version of the 777.
In a dramatic decision, Boeing selected the GE90-115B turbofan in July 1999 as the exclusive option on the longer-range Boeing 777-300ER and 777-200LR jetliners.
With 115.000 pounds of thrust, the GE90-115B would be by far the “the most powerful reaction engine in the world”, suring its GE90 model predecessors and all competitors. In one fell swoop, the 777 propulsion landscape was transformed.
after approval
The stakes for GE Aviation were huge, and tensions rose in the president's office at Evendale Building 100. After all, the company's future in high-thrust turbofans was in check, and the winning single-source bid was financially complex and aggressive.
In common aviation parlance, the offer was a “big bet”. Two days before Boeing announced the deal, McNerney turned to Chadwell and asked: "We don't laugh, do we?"
With a wide smile and quiet assurance, Chadwell, who had a history of selling “big bets” to his bosses, replied: “Jim, it's a good deal. It will be money for Boeing and GE.”
Days later, Jack Welch reflected McNerney's anxiety during a press event with Boeing at Rockefeller Center in New York to announce the 777-300ER and -200LR, powered by the GE90. “The GE90 is the most money I've ever spent on a new product, so let's hope it all works out”, he said.
Publicly, Boeing said the 777-300ER and -200LR filled a niche market and had 500 firm orders expected. In addition, many analysts considered Boeing's prediction too optimistic, because large companies such as United, American and Singapore already operated large fleets with the 777 using P&W and Rolls-Royce engines.
In the end, the guys were wrong. Although GE's competitors increased the horsepower of their engines, they still required substantial design changes to achieve thrust beyond 100.000 pounds. The GE90-115B was the right solution.
Technical improvements on the GE90 would prove to bring greater efficiency to long-range Boeing 777s with less risk. The fleet fan has grown to 128 inches with composite blades and a more efficient aerodynamic design.
The compressor from the GE90-94B, designed for 777-300ER aircraft, was adopted, which eliminated one stage (10 to 9) and added a booster stage (three to four). Increasing airflow while balancing temperatures in compressor and turbine.
Over time, Boeing orders more than doubled their original forecast of 500 deliveries. The GE90-115B was launched in 2000 with an order from Japan Airlines for 777-300ER aircraft and then demonstrated a fabulous entry into service.
The 777-300ER has become the most profitable long-range jet airliner and the most popular 777 by a wide margin. The GE90-115B's reliability and performance would set industry standards, and influenced a new generation of engines.
Despite Welch's initial frustration with the problems he faced getting the costly GE90 project to market, one of his first calls after winning the GE90-115B for the 777-300ER was to congratulate retired GE Aviation executive Brian Rowe, who devised the original concept of the GE90.
As Rowe wrote in his autobiography: “I felt vindicated that I had made the right choice in engine size and configuration. Good planes grow and require good engines to grow with them.”
Currently, GE has already commercialized more than 1750 GE90-115B engines, and certainly paid for the project, which derived its advanced materials technologies for other engines, such as the CFM Leap-1 and the GEnx.
Via – GE Aviation
