GE Aviation has delivered its 1000th GE90 engine to Boeing for installation in a 777-300ER aircraft ordered by Emirates Airline.

The Dubai-based airline is the largest GE90 engine operator with 60 GE90-powered Boeing 777 in service and an additional 26 aircraft on order.

The engine, a GE90-115B engine, was recently shipped from GE’s outdoor test facility in Peebles, Ohio, to Boeing’s Washington facility for installation on the aircraft.

“It took 11 years to build 500 GE90 engines, and in a little more than three years, we doubled deliveries to 1000,” said Tony Aiello, general manager of the GE90 Program at GE Aviation.

“The feat demonstrates the industry’s strong response to the Boeing 777 aircraft, which has revolutionized the way the aviation industry views big-twin engine aircraft.”

“Emirates is proud to be one of the largest GE90 operators and the contribution it has made in the growth of the GE90 production line,” said Adel Al Redha, executive vice president of Engineering & Operations at Emirates Airline.

“The engine is designed suitably to power the Boeing 777 and the in-service experience in terms of reliability and performance has been very good. We would like to continue to work in partnership with GE and the aircraft manufacturer towards enhancing the product and obtaining greater efficiencies of the engine in its future production and operation in the aviation environment,” he added.

As orders for the GE90-powered Boeing 777 aircraft have significantly increased over the last few years, the production rate for GE90 engines has also experienced dramatic growth from 20 engines per year to 160 engines per year. GE Aviation has an additional 560 GE90 engines in its backlog.

Since the GE90-115B engine entered service in 2004, the engine has accumulated more than 4 million flight hours and has demonstrated superior fuel efficiency as well as proving itself as one of the quietest engines per pound of thrust.

Derated to 110,000 pounds of thrust, the GE90-110B engine powered the Boeing 777-200LR to a world record in 2005 for distance traveled nonstop by a commercial jetliner east from Hong Kong to London.

The same engine also powers the world's largest, longest-range twin-engine freighter, the Boeing 777 Freighter, which offers lower operating costs and more capacity than other twin-engine freighter.-TradeArabia News Service