Korean Air selects GEnx Engine to power Boeing 787 Dreamliner in $240 Million Deal

Korean Air has selected the GEnx engine to power the Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft it has ordered. The airline earlier placed a firm order 10 aircraft with an additional 20 on option.

The value of the firm engine order is more than US$240 million, and deliveries are expected to begin in 2009.

With the Korean Air selection, GEnx engines to date have been selected to power 94 firm Boeing 787 aircraft orders.

The GEnx is modeled on the design of the highly successful GE90. It will succeed the CF6 engine family - GE's most reliable and best-selling engine on wide-body aircraft.

The GEnx provides significantly better fuel burn and payload performance than GE's CF6 engines. The jet engine has a front fan case and fan blades made of composites, which provides greater engine durability, weight reduction and lower operating costs. The fan blades will utilize GE90 composite technology that has performed remarkably well on GE90 engines, with no in-service issues for almost a decade. The GEnx will operate with 18 fan blades (50 percent fewer than the CF6) at noise levels lower than any large GE commercial engine currently in service. The GEnx also features a new combustor for efficient fuel mixing before ignition, resulting in significantly lower NOx levels.

The first full GEnx engine will be tested in 2006, with engine certification scheduled for 2007.

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