Wednesday, March 01, 2000
GE to power new Boeing 777
Long-range jets to fly in 2003
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Culminating a decade of development and billions of dollars of investment, Boeing Co. and GE Aircraft Engines Tuesday formally launched two long-range versions of the Boeing 777, powered exclusively by GE90 engines.
The Boeing 777-200/-300 jets are to begin flying in September 2003. They are aimed at the developing market for long-range but thinly traveled routes, such as New York to Singapore, Atlanta to Hong Kong and Johannesburg to London.
Besides being the exclusive engine supplier for the new 777s, General Electric is a risk-sharing partner in development of the engine-aircraft combination. Neither company would disclose financial details, but it is expected to cost more than $1 billion to build the two new, long-range jets.
GE Aircraft Engines (GEAE), a division of General Electric, is based in Evendale. Hundreds of local workers — in Evendale and the company's Adams County testing complex — will be involved in the project.
The GE90-powered long-range jets “will change long-
range travel for passengers forever,” GE Chairman Jack Welch said at a New York news conference.
GE's investment in the high-thrust engine is “the largest technical investment we've ever made,” Mr. Welch said. “It's nice to see it come to fruition.”
The program's launch also validates the vision of former GEAE Chairman Brian Rowe. In the early 1990s, he saw the need for a new, larger jet engine capable of delivering more than 100,000 pounds of takeoff thrust to power the next generation of wide-body jets, such as the 777.
W. James McNerney, GE Aircraft Engines president, said GE was the only jet engine manufacturer to develop a new engine for the 777. Executives, he said, anticipated “the planes would evolve to these ultra-long ranges.”
Current versions of the 777-200 and 777-300, which are powered by either the lower-thrust version of the GE90 or competing engines built by Pratt & Whitney or Rolls Royce, have essentially the same capacity with less range.
GE executives forecast as many as 500 of the long-range 777 jets will be bought in the next two decades. If that happens, GE could ring up $20 billion in sales.
That number of aircraft sales would be worth about $90 billion to Boeing.
Boeing did not identify any specific customers for the new 777s, though several airlines have signaled interest. Mr. McNerney indicated that Boeing had commitments for more than 30 aircraft.
“We all feel confident we've got more commitments than that,” he told Bloomberg News. “There are solid commitments out there that exceed our internal launch commitments, or we wouldn't be here.”
Phil Condit, Boeing chairman, expects most of the initial demand for the jetliner to come from the Far East.
“Asia is going to be the biggest market,” he said, but added that American carriers serving that region also will be potential customers.
Mr. Condit said Boeing also sees the long-range 777 as a replacement for many older 747s now in airline fleets.
Alan Mulally, president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, said the new 777 coupled with the larger 747 and smaller 767 allows airlines to “mix and match” aircraft to better fit the markets they serve.
“It's almost like an Internet in the sky,” he said. “Everybody wants to fly point-to-point. This opens all those new markets.”
The economic recovery in Asia is fueling new interest in the long-range 777, analysts said.
“There is a stirring of activity in the Far East,” said JSA Research Inc.'s Paul Nisbet, who has a “buy” rating on Boeing stock.
“If they didn't do this, they were in danger of losing more major orders to Airbus.”
Rival Airbus Industrie has gotten a jump on Boeing with the launch of its long-range A340-500/-600. Those jets, powered by four Rolls-Royce Trent engines, are to enter service in 2002. Airbus says it has firm orders for 120 jets.
The A340-500 has seating for 313 passengers but has a range of 8,500 miles. That compares to more than 10,000 miles for the 777-200. The A340-600 seats 380. It has a range of up to 7,500 miles vs. 8,300 miles for the 777-300.
Asked about the competition from long-range A340s, Boeing executives seemed to relish the comparison.
“We can fly further, burn less fuel, offer 10 percent better operating economics and have a bigger passenger cross-section,” Mr. Condit said.
The diameter of the passenger area is about 30 inches larger than the A340, Boeing officials said, giving passengers more room.
This is the third exclusive agreement between GE and Boeing.
CFM International, the GE joint venture with Snecma of France, is the exclusive engine supplier on the new narrow-body Boeing 737s. Boeing and GE are partners in the Boeing Business Jet, a special high-performance derivative of the 737-700 jetliner.
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