- 3 July 2007 -
GE builds aerospace component factory

GENERAL ELECTRIC Company (GE) is set to build a jet engine component factory near Batesville, Mississippi, USA. The facility, due to become operational by early 2009, will specialise in advanced composite engine components.

The Batesville factory will manufacture composite fan blade platforms for the GEnx engine, which will enter service in 2008 on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. According to the company, the GEnx is the only jet engine with both composite fan blades and a composite fan case. Components for GE military engines will also be made at the facility, including parts for the F136 engine being developed jointly by GE and Rolls-Royce to power the F35 US Joint Strike Fighter programme.

In preparation for the new factory, GE joined forces with Mississippi State University (MSU)’s College of Engineering at its Raspet laboratory for an incubator programme to demonstrate the production of composite components for jet engines. The MSU and GE team at Raspet are said to be successfully fabricating carbon fibre and epoxy resin composite components called ‘fan platforms’, which are installed between the front fan blades of GE’s most powerful commercial jet engines. Raspet will continue to make composite components for GE until the new facility is operational.

GE Aviation; www.geae.com

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