An exclusive interview with Weiming Xiang, President of Greater China, GE Aviation
Aviation industry is a long cycle business. GE has been continuously investing in aviation’s technology innovation, including business and general aviation. We believe that China’s business aviation will develop along with the long-term stable economic growth and continuously improved airport and air space management and infrastructure, especially the go-global of Chinese economy. Our efforts will no doubt be recognized by customers and the yield returns in the market, like the achievements we have made in commercial aircraft market.
GE, a company with over 100 years of history, is undergoing the biggest transformation ever, the digital industrial transformation. The application of big data incommercial engines has brought benefits to airline customers. The digital transformation in business and general aviation has just started. We expect to realize proactive engine maintenance that will bring customer values through the data collected so to dramatically improve dispatch reliability, utilizationand to significantly reduce maintenance cost.
GE Aviation’s first H-series turboprop engine is well-known in business and general aviation now. Inspired by FADEC technology, which has been widely used in commercial engines, GE continues making technical innovations in H-Series engines. Using the revolutionary technology, GE experts integrate the intelligent engine digital control technology into propeller controls with affordable architecture for general aviation and business jet community, which achieved single-lever control of turboprop engine for the first time. This innovation not only further optimizes the fuel procedures for engines and the propeller speed to improve engine acceleration and deceleration performance, but also enhances the engine intelligence, therefore achieving a full-automatic protection for temperature exceedance and over-torque in flight and on the ground.
3D printing, also known as additive manufacturing, is a hot spot in high-end manufacturing nowadays. When many companies are talking about the technology, GE has incorporated 3D printed key components in its newly delivered engines. All the fuel nozzles on LEAP and the developing GE9X engines are manufactured by 3D printing technology.
In business and general aviation, GE will raise up the 3D printing technology to a new level. The brand new advanced turboprop engine program ATP, will make its history by incorporating over 30% of the engine components produced by 3D printing technology and achieve its performance target. For instance, over 850 traditional parts formerly used will be reduced to around 10 3D printed pieces, including engine frames, combustor liners, sumps, exhaust case, bearing housings and heat exchanger. In addition to significantly reduce the number of parts and simplify the manufacturing processes, 3D printing technology will also help reduce the weight by 5% and fuel consumption by 1%. Moreover, the lead time for new parts developing will be considerably shortened - the combustor liner can be completed in two days now, while a couple of months were needed before. It is expected that the ATP engine will conduct its first test run in the fourth quarter of this year.
Translation by Bing Yuanchun
版權聲明：本文系《今日民航IFLY》雜誌社獨家策劃稿件，經過允許歡迎轉載。
作為專注於公務航空與通用航空領域的權威雜誌，秉承高端、權威、專業的媒體定位，《今日民航IFLY》攜全媒體平臺，將以最專業的媒體形式，全面、立體地展現亞洲及全球公務與通用航空的最新發展和動態。