Other partners in the initial rollout of the program are the City of Orlando, Florida; Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta Airport; and the University of Illinois. As part of GE’s collaboration with the Environmental Defense Fund, the non-profit group is helping GE select sites and explore new ways to share best practices from the treasure hunts more widely across different industries. As Gwen Ruta, EDF vice president for Corporate Partnerships, said: “Trillions of dollars in energy savings are up for grabs in the United States” and the new partnership is “making it possible for cities and towns, hospitals and universities and businesses of all sizes to ferret out the valuable energy treasure buried in their own backyards.”

The new program comes as GE just marked the 5th anniversary of ecomagination by announcing that it is doubling its initial R&D technology investment — which was $5 billion in the initiative’s first years — by investing another $10 billion through 2015. Added Steve Fludder, GE’s vice president of ecomagination: “Extending our Treasure Hunts to external partners and helping them reduce costs and save energy is a logical next step for GE.”

The work at Continuum Health Partners’ Roosevelt Hospital relied on the same type of process GE uses internally. In the hunts, team leaders work with onsite staff to apply technology expertise and process improvement tools to identify, quantify and recommend enhancements to sources of energy waste — including electricity, natural gas, water, wastewater, compressed air and steam. The video below, taken during a GE Healthcare treasure hunt at our plant in Wisconsin last year, shows how the process works.

* Read today’s announcement
* Learn more about ecomagination Treasure Hunts
* Visit the ecomagination website
* Learn more about EDF
* Learn more about Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC initiative and challenges
* Read more ecomagination stories on GE Reports
* Read “How GE’s ‘Treasure Hunts’ Discovered More Than $110M in Energy Savings”
* Read “On the hunt for sunken treasure at GE” on GE Reports
* Read “Hunting for energy treasures in Cincinnati” on GE Reports
* Read “Finding energy savings in unlikely places” on GE Reports

As UMLF explains on its website: “The concept of microenterprise was founded by Dr. Mohammad Yunnus and emerged in the developing world through the Grameen Bank (Bank of the Poor) in the country of Bangladesh in 1976. The bank was established with the practice of making small loans to the poor — predominantly women — to help them obtain economic self-sufficiency.” They note that Grameen Bank has been extremely successful, reporting a 97 percent rate of repayment. (Grameen’s pioneering work can also be seen on the healthcare front, with GE having partnered with the bank last year as part of its healthymagination efforts in Bangladesh).

While microenterprise in the U.S. is different from that in developing countries, the basic idea is the same. As UMLF’s Kathy Ricci said at the launch event in Salt Lake City: “We help people start or grow businesses that are not able to get traditional bank or credit union funding.” In the U.S., helping jumpstart a business also comes in the form of technical aid, specialized training and coaching, and assistance in improving the business owner’s financial understanding — all key GE Capital strengths.

“According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small companies account for 64 percent of new jobs over the last 15 years,” said Utah Rep. Jim Matheson, whose state is number one in the country in when it comes to the percentage growth of women-owned businesses. Yet despite those statistics, he underscored at the Salt Lake conference that securing financing — and accessing the training and expertise — necessary for long-term success can often be an uphill battle for those starting a business, or trying to expand one.

* Visit the Banking on Women website
* Read coverage in The Deseret News
* Read coverage in The Salt Lake Tribune
* Read the announcement about the Salt Lake City program
* Read more GE Capital stories on GE Reports

Brazil already accounts for approximately 40 percent of GE’s South American revenue — $7.5 billion in 2009 — and this year marked the 90th anniversary of GE’s presence in the country. It also coincided with GE’s recent announcement that it plans to locate its fifth Global Research Center in the country, joining the ranks of GE’s other labs in China, Germany, India and the U.S. The centers are the technology development hubs for all of GE’s businesses.

The new Healthcare plant will be one of the immediate beneficiaries of the new Global Research Center, as beginning in 2013 the lab will help initiate development of products geared specifically to meet local market needs. It’s part of GE’s “reverse innovation” strategy, currently active in countries such as China and India, in which products are developed in local markets and tailored for local market needs.

Thinking big: The Brazilian healthcare market is currently worth $600 million and the entire Latin America region is worth $2 billion. Both markets are growing at a rate of 8 percent a year. The inauguration press conference is pictured above.

As GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt wrote in a recent op-ed, published in Brasil Econômico: “From regional jets and autos to mobile phones and food and beverage, Brazil has tremendous capacity to become a leading global supplier of inputs, components, and finished goods…. Indeed, right now GE is working with BNDES [The Brazilian Development Bank] on opportunities to enhance Brazil’s competitiveness in manufacturing and services in areas such as wind power and aviation.”

Poised to expand: The plant will manufacture the DF-R x-ray system, one of GE’s healthymagination-certified products. In addition, the facility has manufacturing capabilities for mammography and remanufacturing of a number of diagnostic imaging products. In the future, the plant will expand manufacturing to include Positron Emission Tomography (PET), Computed Tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Monitoring Systems.

Echoing the surge of optimism about Brazil’s growth, The Economist magazine observed earlier this year that “new skyscrapers are going up along Avenida Faria Lima in the business district of São Paulo. Sales of computers and cars are booming, while a glut of passengers has clogged the main airports. Brazil created 962,000 new formal-sector jobs between January and April — the highest figure for these months since records began in 1992. Everything indicates that over the past six months the economy has grown at an annualized pace of over 10 percent. Even allowing for an expected slackening, many analysts forecast that growth in 2010 will be 7 percent — the highest rate since 1986.” The boom has also caught the attention of Chinese investment dollars, with The Washington Post reporting that “in the first half of this year, China’s investment in Brazil topped $20 billion, more than 10 times all of China’s previous investment in the country. That puts China on track to be Brazil’s No. 1 investor for 2010, compared with 29th in 2009.”

Training hub: Another important initiative at the plant planned for 2011 will be the launch of the first training center for GE Healthcare engineers in Brazil and Latin America. This training center will focus on the transfer of knowledge, training of local service employees and the qualification of suppliers in GE’s environmental and work safety standards.

In the video clip below, Claudia Goulart, president and CEO of GE Healthcare for Latin America, talks about the new plant’s focus on local needs in Brazil and the region.

Learn more in these GE Reports stories:
* “Boosting GE’s ‘company to country’ approach in Brazil”
* “Taking a look at GE in Brazil during WEF Latin America”
* “Keeping growth on the fast track: WEF Latin America”
* “Switching smart grids from ‘demo’ to ‘deploy’ at WEF”
* “Brazil’s turbines sweetly hum with sugar-based ethanol”
* “The sugar-land express: Brazil orders 50 locomotives”
* “Brazil’s new Azul airline inks $1B services deal with GE”
* “GE wins $250 million offshore drilling contract in Brazil”
* “Brazil boosts clean gas in the Amazon; wind in the East”

* Read an English version of Jeff Immelt’s op-ed in Brasil Econômico
* Read the announcement about the new plant

Likewise, General Paul V. Hester draws on his experiences from “The Great Engine War” of the ‘80s and ’90s to underscore the impact that direct competition can have on lowering costs. At the time, problems developed from a sole-sourced Pratt & Whitney engine being used to power the F-15. The military eventually called for a second engine to be developed, resulting in GE producing what later became the dominant engine of the entire F-16 fleet. General Hester is a retired Commander of the Pacific Air Forces where he had responsibility for Air Force activities spread over half the globe. He currently consults for the aerospace industry, including GE Aviation.

Striking a similar chord, General William R. Looney III, a retired Commander of Air Education and Training Command, also cites his experiences with the “The Great Engine War” in pointing out how competition creates necessary incentives to lower costs and increase quality. General Looney has more than 4,000 flying hours as a command pilot, including 2,500 in the F-15. He currently consults for the aerospace industry, including GE Aviation.

Other videos, including one with General David A. Brubaker, former Deputy Director of the Air National Guard and an operational test pilot with more than 2,500 flying hours, can be found at http://www.youtube.com/f136. The site also contains more comments by the generals as well as their individual biographies.

Meanwhile, the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team just announced that the fourth F136 engine to test in 2010 is in final assembly and will begin running within a few weeks. It will begin flight testing next year in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Three test engines have already been successfully tested this year, meeting or exceeding all test requirements. Two new engines are also in assembly, with one to begin testing later in the summer and another within a few months. That will make a total of six F136 engines in test in 2010, with the program on schedule to complete 1,000 hours of testing this year.

Big numbers: The JSF will replace the AV-8B Harrier, A-10, F-16, F/A-18 Hornet and the United Kingdom’s Harrier GR.7 and Sea Harrier, all of which are currently powered by GE or Rolls-Royce making them the engine powers of choice for the U.S. and U.K. militaries. Potential F-35 production for the U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marines and international customers, including the UK Royal Air Force and Royal Navy, may reach as many as 5,000 to 6,000 aircraft over the next 30 years. About 900 engineers and technicians are engaged in the F136 program at GE Aviation’s Cincinnati, Ohio, headquarters, and at Rolls-Royce facilities in Indianapolis, Indiana; and Bristol, England.

Learn more in these GE Reports stories:
* “Lehman: No JSF competition is ‘Alice in Wonderland’”
* “GE and the Joint Strike Fighter: Facts vs. Myths Part 2”
* “GE and the Joint Strike Fighter: Facts vs. myths”
* “Fixed price offer will slash Joint Strike Fighter costs”
* “GE & the Joint Strike Fighter: Let the best engine win”
* “Gen. Hough: JSF engine competition ‘never happened’”
* “House backs Joint Strike Fighter engine competition”

* Read Aviation Week’s recent story about the F136 engine
* Visit F136.com to learn more about the arguments in favor of engine competition
* Learn details about how the JSF engine is made
* Read the GAO’s May 2009 report on the JSF
* Read Desert Storm air commander Gen. Chuck Horner’s opinion piece
* Read the JSF recommendations made by the Heritage Foundation

MyEngines digital services will cover LAN’s entire fleet and allows technicians to quickly review critical engine data and make real-time decisions regarding their fleet, even remotely. For example, the software tracks overhaul progress; allows for urgently needed materials to be researched and ordered; monitors the health of critical engine parameters; and helps engineers make decisions by accessing engine specs and verifying compliance with service bulletins.

As we noted in our story on Monday about Farnborough — which is held every two years and alternates with the Paris Air Show — GE and its partner companies landed $9 billion in engine and service deals on just the first day. The partner companies include CFM International, which is a 50/50 joint company between GE and Snecma, and Engine Alliance, which is a 50/50 joint company between GE and Pratt & Whitney.

By Wednesday, the total had shot up to over $16 billion — and a $1 billion services deal with UPS announced today brings the tally to $17 billion for the week. UPS signed a 10-year deal for what’s known as an OnPoint solutions agreement with GE Aviation for 142 engines in its fleet. OnPoint services may include overhaul, on wing support — which is when maintenance teams are dispatched anywhere in the world to work on an engine while it’s still with the aircraft — parts, repairs, technology upgrades, engine leasing, and integrated systems support and diagnostics.

Good sign: At the air show, Eihad Airways, the national airlines of the United Arab Emirates, finalized its purchase of 70 GEnx-1B engines to power its 35 Boeing 787 Dreamliner jets along with a multi-year OnPoint solution services agreement.

Aviation also announced that its OnPoint Fuel & Carbon Solutions is the newest technology to be added to GE’s ecomagination portfolio of more energy efficient products. The proprietary software helps airlines — which typically see 30 percent of their expenses chewed up by fuel — identify and track operational improvements that can reduce their fuel spend by an average of three percent. GE launched the software earlier this year with Brazil’s GOL Airlines.

David Joyce, President of GE Aviation, talks about the industry outlook in the CNBC interview below. His comments begin at about the 2-minute mark.

* Read more about myEngines on AviationWeek
* Read “Farnborough Air Show: $9B for GE & partners on Day 1” on GE Reports
* Read more Aviation stories on GE Reports

Where it counts: Through its Developing Health Globally program, GE is working with 11 hospital projects in Ghana alone. The hospitals are rural facilities serving communities with around 200,000 people — who may live up to a few days’ walk from a hospital.

“Women throughout Africa, where we have worked for more than 35 years, are dying from conditions and complications of child birth that are easily treated in America, Europe and other developed countries,” Leslie writes. “Nearly half a million women across the globe bleed to death after giving birth or perish from infection or die in delivery because trained health care workers aren’t by their side. Some women are more at risk because they live in countries of Africa that have been forgotten: Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire and a dozen other nations have among the highest rates of maternal and infant mortality and lowest life expectancy even though fewer of their citizens are infected with HIV/AIDS.”

Leslie Mancuso, PhD, RN, FAAN, works with front-line health workers to design and implement low-cost, hands-on solutions and services for women and their families.

“The 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa command neither the attention of policy makers or aid dollars that could change the lives of women and children, secure the future of families and sustain communities. The reasons vary — population, political leadership, language barriers, international oversight. Sadly, the result is the same. When a mother’s health is compromised, the health of her children and family suffer too.”

“A survey by our organization found that the health of residents in the 14 countries is far worse than that of people living in the 29 dominant African countries. As orphaned countries, the 14 receive less than half in per capita U.S. government aid dollars for health programs than do the African countries favored by donors — 86 cents compared to $3.95.”

“Can corporate America help resolve this unacceptable disparity?

“Through its Developing Health Globally project, a commitment to improve hospitals and clinics in 10 African countries, GE has recognized the enormous need on the continent. The health concerns of women and children, however, often begin before they ever enter a hospital. Companies should support programs that promote healthy pregnancies and newborn deliveries, develop low-cost, evidence-based diagnostic and treatment tools for use in countries that have neither the resources or infrastructure to support high-tech systems and train health care practitioners who deliver this much-needed care despite great odds.

“Dr. Blami Dao is one such professional. He is a dean at a medical school in Burkina Faso, one of the 14 orphaned countries. An early participant in Jhpiego-sponsored training in emergency obstetrical care, Dr. Dao used his skills to teach general practitioners in his country to do Caesarean sections. This cross-training enabled many more pregnant women in Burkina Faso to have access to this life-saving procedure. Today, his teaching hospital is affiliated with 30 maternity clinics and more than a dozen countries use it as a training center for physicians. Supporting a master trainer like Dr. Dao is an investment that pays life-saving dividends and reaches across borders….”

Baby talk: In February, the GE Foundation began working with Ashoka, the global network of leading social entrepreneurs, to identify and map solutions aimed at improving maternal and infant health around the world.

Learn more in these GE Reports stories:
* “Robert Harrison on China’s EHS Academy: Scale is key”
* “Responsibility snapshot: 6th Citizenship Report debuts”
* “Citizen GE: Linking sustainability to public trust”
* “Healthcare in Africa: A closer look at Ghana”
* “Making an impact: GE’s medical aid in Abeche, Chad”
* “Helping 101 babies & counting in Cambodia’s hospitals”
* “Making rural healthcare exponentially more effective”
* “Hey baby! GE donates $8M for UK maternal hospital”

* View the Citizenship Report and the re-launched website at ge.com/citizenship
* Read Leslie’s comments during last May’s healthymagination conference
* Learn more about the Developing Health Globally program

A ripple effect: The first EHS Academy was launched late last year and is based at Sun Yat-sen University’s Lingnan College, a respected business school in the southern city of Guangzhou. Drawing on best practices from companies such as GE, Honeywell, Walmart and Adidas, the goal is to support the growth of a Chinese EHS profession that will boost compliance in factories, rein in energy use and encourage conversion to cleaner energy. Lead funding has been provided by GE, the U.S. Agency for International Development and Walmart.

In his essay, “Developing strong local and international partnerships,” Robert writes that one of the reasons his organization likes the academy so much is because the project “fills a gap.” He continues: “We could see the enormous potential for the EHS Academy model to fill a distinct need in China, which is currently the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. The pace of supply chain expansion has outpaced even traditional EHS compliance efforts, and a systematic approach to monitoring greenhouse gas emissions throughout supply chains did not exist. A comprehensive, sustainable approach, with the potential to get to scale quickly, was needed.”

Robert S. Harrison is also chairman of the board of directors of the Henry Street Settlement, vice-chairman of the board of trustees of Cornell University, and a member of the board of directors of the Association of American Rhodes Scholars.

“The Academy is an innovative partnership because it combines the relative strengths of governments, local partners, non-profit organizations, educational institutions, and multi-national corporations,” he writes. “It’s crucial for all these different types of organizations to collaborate to address the challenges of Chinese supply chains….”

“In China, scale is key. ISC’s [Academy backer Institute for Sustainable Communities’] corporate partners are absolutely integral to ensuring that meaningful scale is reached. By committing to send their own managers to the trainings, they can continue to test and refine the Academy’s impacts. And as success is demonstrated, they can expand the trainings to the supply chain managers throughout their operations. With prominent industry leaders like GE, Walmart and Adidas involved, the chances of rapid widespread adoption are much improved.

“Beyond that, the Academy model is unique for its investment in leadership training, not just compliance training. Managers coming out of their training will be positioned to be real agents of change, and to address the challenges presented by the existing patchwork approach to EHS and energy management in China….”

As Robert notes, “scale is already happening” with the next Academy in Jiangsu expected to train 4,000 managers per year. “The long-term aim is to change policy and practice across Chinese industry … and the EHS Academy seems to hit all the right notes — by rooting itself in Chinese academic institutions, garnering the support of key government agencies, and involving its main stakeholders in the funding and operations of the program.”

The Citizenship website also features a Q&A with Yu Yang, EHS Manager with Fortune Electric Ltd., a Chinese supplier, who attended the EHS Academy.

* Read Robert’s full post
* Read a feature story about the EHS Academy on the Citizenship website
* Read “China charts green goals with new partnership” on GE Reports
* Read “Responsibility snapshot: 6th Citizenship Report debuts” on GE Reports
* View the Citizenship Report and the re-launched website at ge.com/citizenship
* Read “Citizen GE: Linking sustainability to public trust” on GE Reports

Fresh look: Click the image to visit the newly re-launched Citizenship website and view the online Citizenship Report, which is structured around a discussion of three pillars of GE’s strategy — energy and climate change, sustainable healthcare, and community building.

At its core, the report provides a type of annual scorecard that evaluates GE’s work vs. its commitments on a wide range of business issues, corporate responsibility initiatives, and stakeholder engagement. As Nunn points out, charting that progress is vitally important as “this report represents the evolution of GE’s effort to continually challenge ourselves to be more transparent, more accessible, and more cognizant of our impact on society and the environment. It provides a snapshot of how we are progressing on this long term journey towards sustainability in an ever-evolving global marketplace.” Nunn notes that it’s not just a matter of company policies, but the sum total of all of GE’s actions that count. As he explains it: “Millions of decisions made by hundreds of thousands of GE employees determine each day whether GE is living up to its own commitments and expectations: to have a positive and sustainable impact on society and the environment.”

This year’s report again features 20 essays on key responsibility issues — which we’ll spotlight in our series this week — from external thought leaders, customers and GE employees. Some feature calls to actions, others raise questions, and some track progress that’s being made in the field — such as the one by Andrew Jenkin, General Manager Innovation, Technology Transfer at Rio Tinto, Australia. As Andrews explains it, “In Australia, companies like Rio Tinto face a great deal of pressure in relation to the issue of climate change. The resources industry consumes large quantities of energy in the mining, moving, and mineral recovery processes that are required to deliver the minerals and metals in strong demand across the world.”

A thirsty enterprise: The mining dilemma: In 2008-09, the minerals sector accounted for eight percent of Australia’s gross domestic product and 48 percent of the nation’s total trade. It also has a significant environmental impact, as it releases carbon dioxide and methane gas into the atmosphere and is a large consumer of Australia’s most precious resource: water.

Andrew notes that Rio Tinto and GE set up an alliance late in 2008 to innovate in this area by developing new technologies to significantly reduce energy consumption and reduce water use.

“We’ve examined a number of concepts that could significantly alter the energy footprint of both our company and the mining industry as a whole,” he writes, and “we’ve already made some progress with the approval of a program to demonstrate the potential value of a GE road surface product at our Mesa A mine, located in the Pilbara region of Northwest Australia. Dust can be a big problem in places like that, especially for the safety of vehicle drivers on haul roads. Typically, companies like ours will spray water on the roads to help reduce dust. But water is often a precious resource in Australia, and the watering process itself introduces many additional costs and EHS issues to be managed.”

For example, some of technologies increase the ability of water to adhere to and spread over a dust particle — or they bind to the ore itself, which can create dust when being moved or when blowing wind hits piles of it.

“In projects like this, the timeframes involved are measured in years, not months,” Andrew writes. “Assuming the new road surface performs well, we expect to measure significant improvements in the areas of water consumption, fuel consumption, and vehicle maintenance.”

Dusting off solutions: At a gold mine in Nevada, GE’s dust control technology helped reduce water usage by 90 percent.

* Read today’s announcement
* Read Andrew’s full post
* Read a feature about Australia’s mining industry
* Read about GE’s DusTreat road surface product
* Visit ge.com/citizenship

Future flight? It wouldn’t be an air show without a glimpse into what the future of air travel might look like. Airbus today released images at Farnborough showing what a plane might look like in 2050, “or even 2030 if advancements in existing technologies continue apace,” they note. The plane has a U-shaped tail and engines partially embedded into the plane itself.

In one deal with Emirates, the airline is ordering 30 Boeing 777s powered by GE90-115B engines — which are part of GE’s ecomagination portfolio of more fuel-efficient technologies. The engine order, including spare engines, is valued at $2 billion list price. An additional 12-year services agreement for maintenance and overhaul is worth more than $1 billion.

Emirates also placed a deal with the GE joint venture Engine Alliance for GP7200 engines to power 32 Airbus A380s in a deal, including a service agreement, worth approximately $4.8 billion. The GP7200 combines innovations from its member companies’ most successful wide body engines: the GE90 and the PW4000.

Meanwhile in other deals today, China Eastern Airlines inked a $600 million engine and service deal for CFM56-5B engines to power 30 new Airbus A320 family aircraft. Chinese flag carrier Air China chose the CFM56-5B engine to power 20 Airbus A320s. That order and service deal is also valued at approximately $600 million. Also in services, Angola Airlines (TAAG) and Tripoli-based Afriqiyah Airways each signed 10-year, $50 million maintenance agreements. Brazil’s Azul airline ordered CF34-10E engines valued at more than $40 million and South America’s TRIP airline ordered the same engines in a deal valued at $17 million.

GE’s latest flight management technology is also drawing attention at Farnborough. GE Aviation, as part of a consortium of industry partners led by LFV Sweden, announced that it is now part of the “Green Connections” project, which is validating how existing technology can be better utilized to reduce air travel C02 emissions. GE’s flight management system will provide four dimensional flight trajectories — latitude, longitude, altitude and time — to predict the optimum flight paths in the project. By creating curved, tailored trajectories, planes can have shorter flight paths and use their engines more efficiently, thereby reducing fuel use and emissions.

Going fast: Also at Farnborough, GE announced that it’s ramping up production of the GEnx engine that will power the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 747-8 aircraft, pictured above. “The GEnx engine is having the fastest production ramp-up of any commercial engine in GE’s history, with the production rate at 100 engines this year and doubling to 200 next year,” said Tom Brisken, general manager of the GEnx program at GE Aviation. GE will produce 60 GEnx-2B engines for the 747-8 aircraft and 40 GEnx-1B engines for the 787 Dreamliner at its Durham, North Carolina facility this year. Next year, GE plans to produce 200 GEnx engines, split evenly between the two models. Production is scheduled to continue at this pace through 2013 for a total of 700 engines delivered to 28 customers. In all, more than 1,300 GEnx engines are on order to 48 customers around the world.

And signaling strength in the aircraft leasing sector, GE Capital Aviation Services (GECAS), today announced an order for 40 next-generation Boeing 737-800s and an additional 60 Airbus A320 family aircraft. GECAS is the commercial aircraft leasing and financing arm of GE with a fleet of over 1,800 owned and managed aircraft with approximately 245 airlines in over 75 countries. As The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) noted in its story today about Farnborough: “Jet makers are striking an upbeat tone amid global economic uncertainty. A big reason: Airplane-leasing companies are shopping again….” The Journal reports “carriers world-wide are emerging from their worst crisis in decades, boosting demand for planes. As significant, money is returning to the aviation market.”

If you count the engines being purchased as part of the GECAS orders, the total sales figure for GE and its partners on Day 1 of Farnborough climbs to over $10.5 billion.

Learn details about today’s deals:
* Emirates GE90 announcement
* Emirates GP7200 announcement
* Air China CFM announcement
* China Eastern Air CFM announcement
* Green Connections project announcement
* Boeing GECAS announcement
* Airbus GECAS announcement

* Read more Aviation stories on GE Reports

As Lehman wrote in “The wrong way to build the F-35,” an opinion piece published in October: “Nowhere was the wisdom of annual competition better demonstrated than in the establishment of an alternative engine for the Air Force F-15 and F-16 fighters. Despite strong opposition from his own bureaucracy, Air Force Secretary Verne Orr, fed up with constant cost growth and repeated grounding of all fighters due to flaws in the sole-source engine, forced through the qualification of an alternative engine and contractor, and had the two compete every year thereafter. The benefits from this annual competition came swiftly, were many and have endured. There was steady improvement in reliability, performance and fuel economy and a dramatic drop in engine-caused accidents. By the second year of full competition, the cost per engine had dropped 20 percent. The Navy soon followed suit in choosing an alternative engine for the F-14 with similar benefits….With the F-35 scheduled to replace all other US fighters except the F-22, it is hardly wise to risk the same kind of fleet grounding that afflicted the F-14 and F-15 when they depended on a sole-source engine supplier.”

History lesson: As Lehman points out, one of the most compelling arguments in favor of engine competition is the lesson learned from the 1980s and ’90s — known in military circles as “The Great Engine War.” At the time, problems developed from a sole-sourced Pratt & Whitney engine being used to power the F-15 fleet. The military eventually called for a second engine to be developed and established a head-to-head competition for its new F-16s. It resulted in GE developing what later became the dominant engine of the entire fleet, with GE’s alternative engine today powering every combat F-16 in the active U.S. Air Force.

Added Lehman in his opinion piece: “I’m quite unused to defending the actions of Congress, but when it comes to contracting the production of the new F-35 fighter, the Defense committees are right and the Pentagon is wrong.”

Learn more in these GE Reports stories:
* “GE and the Joint Strike Fighter: Facts vs. Myths Part 2”
* “GE and the Joint Strike Fighter: Facts vs. myths”
* “Fixed price offer will slash Joint Strike Fighter costs”
* “GE & the Joint Strike Fighter: Let the best engine win”
* “Gen. Hough: JSF engine competition ‘never happened’”
* “House backs Joint Strike Fighter engine competition”

* Visit F136.com to learn more about the arguments in favor of engine competition
* Learn details about how the JSF engine is made
* Read the GAO’s May 2009 report on the JSF
* Read Desert Storm air commander Gen. Chuck Horner’s opinion piece
* Read the JSF recommendations made by the Heritage Foundation