GE Aircraft Engines is more than a year away from refining an engine concept for Boeing's proposed Sonic Cruiser jet, but the Evendale division already has a team working on the design.

        The cruiser, which would fly just under the speed of sound, would shave an hour or more off trans-Atlantic flights. It is expected to begin flying late this decade, carry 100 to 300 passengers and fly up to 20 percent faster than today's planes, according to reports. The concept is dramatically different from Airbus Industrie's A380 superjumbo jet, which would carry up to 600 passengers.

        Developing the engine, dubbed GENX, is expected to cost about $1 billion. GEAE and its partners committed about $2 billion in the early 1990s to develop the high-thrust GE90 that powers the Boeing 777.

        “We have at least one year of development between us and Boeing to flesh out the engine concept, so it's hard for me to tell you what the engine will be or look like,” Dave Calhoun, GEAE president, said before this week's Paris Air Show. Rivals Pratt & Whitney and Rolls Royce Plc are also developing engine concepts for the Sonic Cruiser.

        Mr. Calhoun said GE's powerplant will be built around the engine core developed for the GE90.

        “That is the fundamental core for all our large-engine applications because we can scale it to different degrees and it gives maintenance commonality to our customers,” Mr. Calhoun said.

        Boeing has wrapped almost military-type secrecy around the Sonic Cruiser development, requiring GE's team of about 50 engineers not to divulge details. But Mr. Calhoun said that in his conversations with airline executives, most gave “a resounding "yes' in favor” of the proposed jetliner.

        “They like the speed,” he said. “It certainly enhances their capability to deliver point-to-point service to more and more remote parts of the world.”

        The proposed jet is already stirring controversy in Europe. A European Union official Friday accused Boeing of “nonchalantly” neglecting environmental concerns about the Sonic Cruiser. A Boeing spokesman said the Seattle-based company is committed to making an “environmentally friendly aircraft.”

        Bloomberg News and the Wall Street Journal contributed to this report.
       

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