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Ge Aircraft - Groundhog Day 1995 will go down in the history books, not just because it didn't overshadow Punxsutawney Phil. Until 1995, the sky was overcast in Pennsylvania on February 2, when a new chapter in commercial aviation opened near the Ohio River.

It took place in the Cincinnati suburb of Evendale, where Air Force One is headquartered, where a crowded conference room was filled with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) engineers, managers and officials. On the table were the certification documents for a giant high-revving turbofan aircraft engine called the 90 that the company had spent the past decade developing. Without certification, the engine could not fly on the Boeing 777.

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90 was a big bet by the division's CEO at the time, Brian Rowe. Rowe believed in Boeing's concept that long-haul, international jets could run on just two engines instead of the usual four, reducing fuel and maintenance costs. But getting there meant increasing the size of the engines and developing parts from materials never before used in civil aviation. "The '90s will be the vehicle that takes us into the 21st century," Rowe said.

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The tension in the room eased as the FAA representatives leaned forward and signed the paperwork officially declaring Engine 90 airworthy. But there was no time for champagne or celebration. "We put the certificate right into the fax machine and sent it to Seattle," recalls Philippe Rimbaud as senior engineer for the Room 90 program.

A group of technicians stood in the Pacific Northwest. They immediately printed an airplane poster for the twin-engine Boeing 777 waiting on the runway. This plate allowed the 777 to fly. "That afternoon it made its first test flight with 90 engines," said Rambo, now the Air Force chief engineer.

The rest, as they say, is history. The 90 and 777 reinvented the logistics, economics and aesthetics of jet travel, ushering in an era of twin-engine aircraft and sleek, economical, long-haul flights.

Perhaps a quarter of a century has passed since 1995. Since Groundhog Day, however, the 90 is still the yardstick by which other modern jet engines are measured. It reigned as the world's largest and most powerful aircraft engine until another aviation product, the 9X, dethroned it last year. Many of the latest technologies that are standard in modern jet engines, such as lightweight, composite fan blades and 3D printed parts, started in the 90 family. "It all started with this engine," said Jim Elliott, chief aeronautical engineer. "It exceeded all expectations and became the envy of the industry."

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The numbers tell part of the story. Some 3,000 90 engines have rolled off the production line since 1995, logging approximately 28 million flights and approximately 90 million flight hours between them. British Airways became the first airline to add 90 Boeing 777s to its fleet in 1995. Today, more than 70 carriers operate more than 2,500 engines, most of which are the high-engine version 90-115B. Emirates, Qatar Airways, Cathay Pacific and Air France operate more than 100 engines, mainly the best-selling Boeing 777-300ER, where "ER" stands for "extended range".

Propulsion and efficiency were the combination of attributes that made the engine attractive to airlines. Another was the raw power of the 90s. The engine held the record for nearly 15 years as the world's most powerful jet engine in 2002 with 127,900 pounds of sustained thrust. This matched the solid fuel rockets used by NASA in space exploration in the 1960s. At the same time, efficiency, reliability and power have increased the Boeing 777-300ER's extended operation (ETOPS) to about 345 minutes, which means that, if necessary, the aircraft can fly from the nearest airport to its location for about six hours on one engine. possible: to safe ground. "It really opened up the southern hemisphere and expanded the footprint of twin-engine operations," Rambo says.

For Boeing, the transition from four engines (as used by aircraft such as the Boeing 747) to two engines was no showmanship. This allowed airlines with 777-300ER aircraft in their fleets to reduce costs by reducing fuel costs (fuel accounts for 20% of airline operating costs) as well as reducing maintenance fees, as both are easier and faster to take care of. . more than four engines. This has improved the passenger economy as well as freight, explains Rambo.

The engine held the record for nearly 15 years as the world's most powerful jet engine in 2002 with 127,900 pounds of sustained thrust. This matched the solid fuel rockets used by NASA in space exploration in the 1960s. My Credit: Aviation.

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Over the years, the 90s have become a symbol of innovation along with power. The engine served as the petri dish for all modern jet engine technology common today. Rambo said that while the recent successful test flight of the Boeing 777X, which uses the 9X engine, seemed like the dawn of a new era, it was really the continuation of a dynasty. That's because the 9X is composite, not metal, with fan blades and a few 3D printed parts. "They both started in the '90s," he says.

Light and strong carbon fiber hu fan blades are an engineering feat that no other engine manufacturer has achieved to date. Until the 1990s, engines used fan blades made of silver-colored titanium, which has a relatively low density and high power. But aeronautical engineers began to experiment with other materials in order to reduce the engine's overall weight and fuel burn and increase its power and efficiency. One of the founders of the solution was a material invented by Thomas Edison: carbon fiber.

Since the 90s, all new engines have had fan blades made of carbon fiber composites, thin layers of carbon fiber woven together and held together like phyllo dough with a special resin. This helped reduce the weight of jet engines by hundreds of pounds, allowing larger blades. This is important because larr blades can move more air, increasing the all-important bypass ratio in the 90s; The bypass ratio on the 90 is 9:1, meaning the engine sends nine times as much air through the core and fan as the core. (9X - 10:1).

The blade design was also ahead of its time. Rambo says the blade developed for the base engine in 1995 was "pretty straight," but over the years it flared more and more, which captured and accelerated the airflow more effectively. This blade was aesthetic and aerodynamic. There are 90 engine fans in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. "I had one in my room," Rambo says.

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Then 90 blades have aesthetic and aerodynamic value. An engine fan blade is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. My Credit: Aviation.

Although the blades are now manufactured by CFAN, a joint venture between Aviation and Safran Aircraft Engines, in San Marcos, Texas, the first were manufactured in Cincinnati. "They weren't cheap," Rambo says. "I remember passing a Porsche 911 in a parking lot and thinking the knife was worth more than the car."

The knife may be a classic design now, but in 1995 it was the subject of many a 5 a.m. meeting, Rambo recalls. One of the biggest challenges, he said, was making sure the plane could easily handle a perennial fear for pilots: bird strikes. All those early mornings have paid off over the decades. In 25 years and millions of flights, bird strikes have not damaged or deformed a single fan blade. "When you think about it, it's amazing," Rambo says.

Advances in the 90s served as a springboard for innovations that led to engines like the new 9X. The 90 has 22 composite fan blades, while the 9X only has 16. 90 in 2015 was the first jet engine to adopt a 3D printed part, a temperature sensor. Jonathan Clark, a 90-year-old software engineer, explained that the technology allowed the engine to quickly overcome the problem of ice accumulation on the sensor. "3D printing has allowed us to design and manufacture a new part six months ahead of traditional casting technologies," he says. “Since the design, we haven't had a single ice build-up problem. This is a victory."

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