GE Aviation expects this month to fly the Passport engine that will power Bombardier’s Global 7000 and 8000. GE has shipped the first complete engine to Victorville, Calif., where it is about to be fitted to one of the company’s two Boeing 747 flying testbeds.

Judd Tressler, GE’s director of Bombardier programs and small commercial engines, told AIN that a lot of the Passport’s projected performance at up to 51,000 feet has already been validated in ground tests using an altitude chamber, and the manufacturer also has completed icing tests. The 16,500-pound-thrust turbofan’s stall-free capability has been tested, as has the operability of the eCore compressor.

The Passport, GE’s first powerplant purpose-built for a business jet, has a 40:1 overall pressure ratio and includes 52-inch titanium blisks, which Tressler said have contributed to specific fuel consumption projected to be at least 8 percent less than its nearest competitor and also vibrate less thanks to the absence of an interface between separate blades and disks.