Qantas (www.qantas.com.au) has chosen GE Aviation’s (www.geaviation.com) GEnx-1B engine to power its recently ordered eight Boeing 787-9 Dreamliners.

This engine order is valued at more than $400 million (at list price), and deliveries will begin in 2017. The GEnx-1B engine, which is the best-selling engine on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, has accumulated more than 1.7 million flight hours since entering service. More than 1,600 GEnx-1B engines have been sold to more than 50 customers.

Compared to GE’s CF6 engine, the GEnx engine offers up to 15% better fuel efficiency; it features a twin-annular pre-swirl (TAPS) combustor that dramatically reduces NOx gases to a level that is 55% lower than current regulatory limits — and other regulated gases by as much as 90%.

ased on the ratio of decibels to pounds of thrust, the GEnx is the quietest engine that GE produces, thanks to the use of large more-efficient fan blades that operate with a lower tip speed for about a 40% reduction in noise levels.

The GEnx is part of GE’s “ecomagination” product portfolio. Revenue-sharing participants on the GEnx engine programme are: IHI Corporation, Japan; Volvo Aero, Sweden; MTU, Germany; TechSpace Aero (Safran), Belgium; Snecma (Safran Group), France; and Samsung Techwin, Korea.