Civil Aeronautics Administration- and the first to use an electronically controlled afterburner to boost its thrust. That engine scored two major firsts: it was the first turbojet certified for civil use by the U.S. More than 35,000 J47 engines were delivered by the end of the 1950s. With the Korean War boosting demand, the J47 became the world's most produced gas turbine. Later, the plant would be known as Evendale and would become GE Aviation's world headquarters. GE formally opened the plant on February 28, 1949, with the second J47 production line, to complement the original line at Lynn. GE selected a federally owned plant near Cincinnati, Ohio, where Wright Aeronautical piston engines had been produced during World War II. But demand for the J47 to power almost all the new front-line military aircraft, particularly the F-86 Sabre Jet, meant the Lynn plant could not keep up. The resulting J47 put GE back in the business of building jet engines. However, the Air Corps, concerned about disrupting supplies of turbosuperchargers, placed production of GE's jet engines with other manufacturers. The J35 was the first GE turbojet engine to incorporate an axial-flow compressor-the type of compressor used in all GE engines since then. Before the end of that year, a GE J35 engine powered a Douglas D-558-1 Skystreak to a record-breaking 650 miles per hour.
Army Air Corps' first operational jet fighter, the P-80 Shooting Star, to a world's speed record of 620 miles per hour in 1947. The I-A engine incorporated a centrifugal-flow compressor, as did the increasingly more powerful engines developed by GE during the next two years, culminating in the J33 engine, which was rated at 4,000 pounds of thrust. The thrust rating of the I-A was 1,250 pounds the thrust rating of the GE90-115B is more than 90 times as great at 115,000 pounds. In October 1942, at Muroc Dry Lake, California, two I-A engines powered the historic first flight of a Bell XP-59A Airacomet aircraft, launching the United States into the Jet Age. Six months later, on April 18, 1942, GE engineers successfully ran the I-A engine. Army Air Corps picked GE's Lynn, Massachusetts, plant to build a jet engine based on the design of Britain's Sir Frank Whittle. GE Builds America's First Jet Engineīecause principles and challenges in turbosuperchargers apply to gas turbines as well, GE was a logical choice to build America's first jet engine. In addition, GE Aviation is the world's leading integrated engine maintenance resource. As a leader in aviation technology, GE Aviation continues to design, develop and manufacture jet engines, components and integrated systems for military, commercial and business and general aircraft as well as aero-derivative gas turbines for marine applications. Today, GE Aviation is a global provider of engines, systems, and services, with revenues exceeding $30 billion. Among them: America's first jet engine, the first turbojet engines to power flights at two and three times the speed of sound, and the world's first high bypass turbofan engine to enter service. Since then, the aircraft engines division of GE Aviation has scored many firsts. Army Air Force's decision to select GE to develop the nation's first jet engine. The company's expertise in turbines and turbosuperchargers figured into the U.S. That mountaintop test of the first turbosupercharger landed GE's first aviation-related government contract and paved the way for GE to become a world leader in jet engines.įor more than two decades, GE produced turbosuperchargers that enabled aircraft, including many in service during World War II, to fly higher, with heavier payloads. In the bitter atmosphere of Pikes Peak, 14,000 feet above sea level, GE demonstrated a 350-horsepower, turbosupercharged Liberty aircraft engine and entered the business of making airplanes fly higher, faster and with more efficiency than ever before. Under wartime secrecy, both companies tested and developed various designs until the Army called for a test demonstration. Contracts were awarded in what was the first military aircraft engine competition in the U.S. GE accepted the challenge first, but another team also requested the chance to develop the turbosupercharger. This booster, or turbosupercharger, installed on a piston engine, used the engine's exhaust gases to drive an air compressor to boost power at higher altitude. government searched for a company to develop the first airplane engine "booster" for the fledgling U.S. When the United States entered World War I in 1917, the U.S. GE Aviation: Powering a Century of Flight From the turbosupercharger to the world's most powerful commercial jet engine, GE's history of powering the world's aircraft features more than 100 years of innovation.