Production Manager

Martha Jercinovich

“We are at a stage of the program in which we’re doing real testing on real hardware and making real progress.”
Mohamed Ali, vice president and general manager of engineering for GE Aerospace, was recently speaking about the CFM&nbsp;Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program. And his words describe the venture’s current phase precisely. As&nbsp;the RISE program’s game-changing technologies evolve from promising design concepts to functioning components and systems, the pace of testing is accelerating.
“It’s full speed ahead for the RISE program in 2024,” says Arjan Hegeman, general manager of advanced technology for GE Aerospace. “It’s a period of innovation unlike anything GE Aerospace has seen before.”
Unveiled in 2021 by CFM International, a 50/50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines, the RISE program is advancing technologies to support flight that aims to be 20% more fuel efficient with 20% lower carbon emissions than current commercial engines. It’s a formidable challenge, and one that’s critical to meeting the aviation industry’s long-term climate goal of net zero carbon emissions by 2050 for commercial flight. <a href="https://www.cfmaeroengines.com/press-articles/test-progress-builds-confidence-in-open-fan-engine-architecture-for-the-future-of-more-sustainable-air-transport/" target="_blank">More than 250 tests have been completed so far</a>.
Case in point: tests on the program’s next-generation high-pressure turbine, which were recently conducted in a demonstrator engine at GE Aerospace headquarters in Evendale, Ohio, confirmed that it can deliver significant fuel efficiency improvement and increased durability. “It demonstrated a generational step-change improvement in our turbine component cooling technology,” Hegeman says. The technology will be useful in the compact core GE Aerospace is developing for the RISE program through <a href="https://www.geaerospace.com/news/press-releases/other-news-information/ge-aerospace-awarded-nasa-contract-next-phase-advanced-engine" target="_blank">NASA’s Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) program</a>, which has so far focused on high-pressure compressor and high-pressure turbine advanced aerodynamics, along with work on the combustor.
GE Aerospace is also working with NASA and Boeing on the U.S. space agency’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.geaerospace.com/news/press-releases/other-news-information/ge-aerospace-invest-20-million-episcenter-support-hybrid" target="_blank">Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD)</a> program, which seeks to prove the feasibility of hybrid electric flight for commercial aircraft. In 2022, working with NASA, the company was the first to test a multi-kilovolt, megawatt-class hybrid electric power system in conditions simulating altitudes up to 45,000 feet. Hybrid electric systems continue to be tested this year at GE Aerospace’s EPISCenter facility at the University of Dayton.
RISE program technologies are being developed for compatibility with alternative energy sources as well. To date, GE Aerospace and its joint ventures have tested 10 different aircraft engine models&nbsp;<a href="https://www.geaerospace.com/news/press-releases/other-news-information/ge-aerospace-and-partners-achieve-new-milestone-testing-10" target="_blank">using 100% sustainable aviation fuel (SAF)</a> to evaluate engine performance, as well as the impact of 100% SAF on contrails and emissions.
Meanwhile, testing of the RISE program’s much-anticipated Open Fan engine architecture continues. In Modane, France, in January 2024, Safran Aircraft Engines and the country’s aerospace research center ONERA (Office National d’Études et de Recherches Aérospatiales) began wind-tunnel tests of a one-fifth-scale replica of the unducted engine prototype. Speaking to journalists in February before the Singapore Air Show, Pierre Cottenceau, Safran’s vice president of engineering, research, and technology, said around two-thirds of the first 200 hours of aerodynamics and acoustics testing has been completed. “Generally, we are very happy with the results,” he added.
The wind-tunnel tests follow simulations&nbsp;<a href="https://www.geaerospace.com/news/press-releases/other-news-information/ge-aerospace-runs-one-worlds-largest-supercomputer">completed in 2023 on the world’s fastest supercomputer</a>. To simulate air movement of a full-scale Open Fan design with intricate detail, GE Aerospace created computational fluid dynamics software capable of running on Frontier, the supercomputer maintained at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which has the processing power of roughly 37,000 GPUs and can make more than a quintillion calculations per second.
Such sophisticated testing of the technologies at work in the RISE program will keep pace in 2024. Hegeman anticipates a year of steady growth. “With many more activities from the front to the back of the engine,” he says, “all advancing towards full ground and flight demonstrators, we are excited to share more updates as things progress.”

News and developments about aircraft engines, including turbofan, turboprop, turboshaft and piston.

Key milestones achieved for more sustainable flight efforts

It's full speed ahead for CFM's Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program.

Full speed ahead for CFM Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines (RISE) program.

2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

Charles Alcock

News and developments about airplanes, helicopters and unmanned air vehicles used in all varieties of operations, including airlines, military, business, commercial, general aviation and private.

News about environmental issues relating to aircraft operations, including noise issues, emissisions, and regulations. See Fuel for biofuel.

Total funding for the third phase of work could top €950 million

EU's Clean Aviation Set to Invite Proposals for Decarbonization R&D Work

Kerry Lynch

News and issues relating to business, corporate and private aviation, primarily regarding turbine-engine-powered airplanes and helicopters. Subjects include aircraft, engines, maintenance, operations, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security, and training.

NASA's Gulfstream G-III will use lidar technology to scan contrails of GE's Boeing 747

NASA and GE Plan Flight Tests To Study Contrails

Hanneke Weitering

News and information on safety procedures and concerns.

Twenty airlines and 25 corporate flight departments are using electronic flight bag software

GE Aerospace's FlightPulse Pilot App Surpasses 40,000 Users

News and issues about aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO), covering all segments of the aviation industry; and modifications for aircraft and engines. Subjects include product support of aircraft, engines and avionics, MRO company mergers, acquisitions, announcements and personnel, Airworthiness Directives, Supplemental Type Certificate approvals and other topics.

New applications for AI are constantly emerging

Aircraft MRO Industry Embraces Artificial Intelligence

Curt Epstein

News about simulators and training procedures, as well as workforce.

Accelerated by Covid, the practice has its pros and cons

Panel Explores Work-from-home Dynamic at JetNet iQ Summit

News and issues relating to the aerospace industry that are related to the science, engineering and business of flight in space involving civil, industrial and military applications, and similar topics related to flight in the atmosphere of the Earth that are not covered more directly by other AINonline subject channels. In other words, both astronautical and aeronautical subjects, except for those aeronautical topics that are specifically covered elsewhere on this website.

News and issues relating to international air transport and cargo carriers, national airlines and regional airlines, including aircraft, engines, personnel, acquisitions, accidents, safety, security and training.

GE has doubled its investment in AI and uses it in a range of applications

GE Aerospace Joins AI Safety Consortium

Gregory Polek

News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft and their powerplants, including helicopters, tilt rotors and unmanned air vehicles.

In this article

GE Aerospace

CFM

More In Engines

EU's Clean Aviation Set to Invite Proposals for Decarbonization R&D Work

Total funding for the third phase of work could top €950 million

NASA and GE Plan Flight Tests To Study Contrails

NASA's Gulfstream G-III will use lidar technology to scan contrails of GE's Boeing 747

GE Aerospace's FlightPulse Pilot App Surpasses 40,000 Users

Twenty airlines and 25 corporate flight departments are using electronic flight bag software

Aircraft MRO Industry Embraces Artificial Intelligence

New applications for AI are constantly emerging

Panel Explores Work-from-home Dynamic at JetNet iQ Summit

Accelerated by Covid, the practice has its pros and cons

GE Aerospace Joins AI Safety Consortium

GE has doubled its investment in AI and uses it in a range of applications

GE Aerospace, Airbus Complete First Stage of Research on Next-Gen Helicopter Propulsion

Milestone marks a significant advancement in the collaboration between the two companies

GE Catalyst Turbine Prepping for Year-end Approval

Certification testing is set to be complete in the third quarter

AIN Products

SUBSCRIPTIONS

RESOURCES

ABOUT AIN