Orders for new GE jet engine exceed 10,000

In advance of this year's debut of the all-new commercial jet engine LEAP, the backlog for the engine now exceeds 10,000 orders and commitments from airline customers valued at approximately $140 billion, GE Aviation joint venture CFM International announced Monday.

West Chester Twp.-based CFM — a 50/50 venture of Evendale-based GE Aviation and French-based Snecma (a division of Safran) — collected last year about 1,400 new orders for LEAP and more than 700 new orders for its existing CFM56 engines already on the market, according to the company.

“Our 2015 orders bring the current backlog to more than 13,400 engines and our biggest challenge now is building them all. To meet that challenge, GE and Snecma have invested nearly $1 billion to date in new and upgraded facilities that incorporate today’s most advanced manufacturing technology,” said Jean-Paul Ebanga, president and chief executive officer of CFM, in a written statement. “Our goal is to ensure that each new LEAP engine is delivered on time with the same level of quality and reliability our customers have come to expect from a CFM product.”

LEAP will be the first commercial jet engine to contain an additively manufactured part in a critical area as well as materials made from ceramic matrix composites, company officials say. The new technologies mean the engine will be lighter than traditional materials and able to withstand hotter temperatures, which will improve fuel efficiency 15 percent over CFM’s existing engine, according to the company.

GE Aviation and CFM employ more than 9,000 people in southwest Ohio.

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