Free Republic

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) approval of the GE9X follows thousands of hours of testing, and clears the engine for life aboard the world’s largest twin-engine aircraft, the Boeing 777X. Before that maiden flight even took place, GE Aviation said it had hundreds of orders on the books from a range of customers in the aviation space, but its primary focus has been the forthcoming family of wide-body planes from Boeing. Developed to power these next-generation 777X passenger jets The GE9X engine itself is as wide as a Boeing 737 fuselage, and is 10 percent more efficient than the GE90...

Incredible footage has revealed the moment that the world's biggest jet engine took to the skies for the first time, ahead of its planned maiden commercial flight in 2020. The huge GE9X powerplant, which is as wide and tall as the fuselage of a Boeing 737, is being built for the latest version of the firm's long-haul 777, the 777X 'megaplane'. General Electric has now begun flight trials of the prototype, after delays caused by technical problems stopped tests originally planned for late last year.

Boeing is set to debut its biggest plane ever next month, and the 777X has finally been paired with the gargantuan GE9X engine that will propel its flight. The plane is currently housed in Boeing's Everett, Washington, assembly plant, where pictures show it looming over workers as they prepare it for its maiden flight. The GE9X engine is the biggest turbine engine in the world. At roughly the size of an entire Boeing 737's fuselage, it was subjected to test flights last March when a single turbine was hitched to a 747 testbed. The engine includes a composite fan more...