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GE's Business and General Aviation division (Booth No. 1747) has announced the addition of the TechX engine to its product line, said Brad Mottier, division vice president and general manager, yesterday.

Mottier said the engine will debut as the powerplant for Bombardier's Global 7000 and 8000 ultra-long-range jets. The airframer announced the large-body 7000 and 8000 ultra-long-range business jets as the latest additions to its Global family of aircraft yesterday as well.

The new engine borrows from GE's experience in engine design for single-aisle airliners and integrates a large amount of composite technologies, but Mottier insists it is a completely new engine.

"There have been a lot of people thinking this is just a derivative of our commercial engines," he said. "It's not. It really is a completely new engine from the ground up."

According to Mottier, the engine also exceeds noise and emission requirements set forth by the Committee of Aviation Environment Protection by more than 50 percent.

Nexcelle announced at the same time that it was selected as supplier of the nacelle for the TechX. The company is a joint venture of GE's Middle River Aircraft Systems and Safran's Aircelle group.

The company's design incorporates composite technologies to reduce weight as well as noise emissions. The nacelle features fire suppression built into the engine cowlings, a departure from the traditional approach of attaching fire-retardant blanks to the inside of the cowlings.

"One trick is to extend the inner barrel of the engine's inlet past the inner flange," Nexcelle president, Steve Walters told AIN. "When you combine that with two-dimensional honeycombing, you can start reducing noise significantly.

"Having the inlet made from a single piece of aluminum means there's no seam, which helps aerodynamics and noise reduction even more."
Nexcelle is currently working with CFM in the development of the Leap-X1C for China's Comac C919, as well, according to Walters.