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General Electric testbed aircraft From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
N747GE is a Boeing 747 aircraft that was used by General Electric Aircraft Engines (now known as GE Aerospace) as a testbed for several of the companies jet engines between 1992 and 2017, including the GE90 for the Boeing 777, at the time, the world’s largest jet engine.
| N747GE | |
|---|---|
| N747GE with a GE90 jet engine at the Mojave Airport in during flight test of the world's largest jet engine. | |
| General information | |
| Other name(s) |
|
| Type | Boeing 747-121[Note 1] |
| Manufacturer | Boeing |
| Owners | Pan Am (1970–1991) GE (1992–2017) |
| Registration |
|
| Flights | 19,251 |
| Total hours | 90,000 |
| History | |
| Manufactured | 1969 |
| First flight | March 3, 1970 |
| Last flight | January 25, 2017 |
| Preserved at | Pima Air and Space Museum, Tucson, Arizona |
| Fate | On display |
Before being purchased by GE, the aircraft was owned by Pan Am and registered N744PA. It was named Clipper Star of the Union between 1970 and 1982 and Clipper Ocean Spray between 1982 and 1992.
The Boeing 747-121[Note 1] rolled off of Boeing's assembly line in 1969 as the 25th Boeing 747 constructed.[citation needed] Originally registered as N744PA, the aircraft was delivered to Pan American World Airways (Pan Am). N744PA remained under the ownership of Pan Am until 1991, when the airline declared bankruptcy on January 8, 1991.[1][2]
The aircraft was first named Clipper Star of the Union when delivered to Pan Am in 1970 and operated with that name until 1982 when it was renamed to Clipper Ocean Spray.[1]
General Electric Aircraft Engines (now known as GE Aerospace) purchased the aircraft after Pan Am’s bankruptcy to serve as an airborne laboratory, specifically for testing jet engines from GE and its joint venture partners.[1] The aircraft received several modifications, including removing seats, strengthening the left wing and tail for flight testing and installing data systems.[3] Ironically, the aircraft was powered with Pratt & Whitney JT9D engines instead of the General Electric CF6. The company said at the time, there were no GE-powered 747s economically available for purchase.[1]
Using a four-engine aircraft allowed GE to swap out the engine on the #2 pylon for an engine under test. The company could then measure fuel burn and engine performance while also subjecting the test engine to difficult conditions such as a high angle of attack during aircraft stalls, zero-G operations, large sideslips and sustained flight in icing conditions. The aircraft first began flight testing out of Mojave Airport in California. In 2003, GE's flight test operations moved into a new hangar at the nearby Victorville Airport.[1]
They used a total of eleven engine models and a total of thirty-nine different kinds of engine builds, beginning with the massive General Electric GE90 for the Boeing 777. Other notable tests include the CFM International CFM56 and its successor the CFM International LEAP for narrow-bodies, the Engine Alliance GP7000 for the Airbus A380, the General Electric GEnx for the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 747-8, the General Electric CF34 for regional jets and the General Electric Passport for business jets.[1]
GE acquired another testbed aircraft in 2010, a newer 747-400. Facing growing maintenance costs, difficulty obtaining parts and a lack of modern navigation systems, GE made the decision to retire the aircraft. The aircraft made its last test flight with a GEnx engine under evaluation on January 25, 2017.[1][4]
The final flight of the aircraft occurred on November 15, 2018, when the aircraft departed from GE's test center Victorville and landed at Davis–Monthan Air Force Base, to be donated to the Pima Air & Space Museum, where it has been placed on display.[1][5]
Throughout its life, the aircraft flew approximately 90,000 hours and 19,251 cycles, including 3,916 hours testing various engines.[3][1]
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