GE Aviation’s ground-breaking GE90 engine celebrates 25 years of service

GE’s ground-breaking GE90 aircraft engine is celebrating two and a half decades of service in the global aviation industry. In this time, under the wings of the Boeing 777 family, the worldwide fleet of GE90 engines has surpassed 100 million flight hours, averaging more than 4 million hours a year. Six regional airlines currently use the GE90 as an important part of their fleets.

Since its launch on November 17, 1995, the GE90 has broken ground as a technological pioneer in its class. Today, across more than 70 airline operators globally, GE has delivered more than 2,800 engines. Its architecture and mechanical design have influenced every GE and partner CFM turbofan engine over the last 20 years, from the popular GEnx and record-selling CFM LEAP engine, to the Passport engine for corporate jets and the next generation GE9X engine for the Boeing 777X.

The GE90-94B and the upgraded GE90-115B face some of the toughest demands daily on a high-thrust commercial jet engine. Despite this, the engine has achieved a world-class dispatch reliability rate of 99.97 percent.

“The GE90 engine has proven to be extremely reliable for our customers, and we are very excited to celebrate the anniversary and 100-million-hour achievement, said Mike Kauffman, GE Aviation’s GE90 program general manager. “This is a testament to all those involved in this milestone, including our dedicated product support team, that will continue to maintain the GE90 for many years to come.”

The GE90-115B has been one of GE’s greatest technical achievements:
• It held the world-record at 127,900 pounds of thrust (lbf) for 13 years. The current world record holder is the GE9X, which has 134,300 pounds of thrust.
• The GE90 engine powered a Boeing 777-200LR during what was once the world's longest flight by a commercial airliner: 21,00 km miles in 22 hours, 42 minutes. The flight departed Hong Kong and landed in London, flying over the Pacific, the entire continental United States, and across the Atlantic Ocean.
• The GE90 is the first jet commercial engine to enter service with composite fan blades and inward opening bleed doors. A GE90-115B fan blade was exhibited in New York’s Museum of Modern Art
• In 2015, the GE90 engine became the first commercial engine to incorporate an FAA-approved 3-D-printed part (a fist-sized piece of silver metal that houses a temperature sensor inside the jet engine).

After 25 years of service, the GE90 engine will continue to set new milestones and support customers, while maintaining its status as a technological pioneer for the aviation industry.