Many in the aviation industry have looked forward to the Boeing 787’s maiden flight.  One of the interested onlookers was Volvo Aero who has worked on components for the 787 for the past five years.

There are two engine options for the Boeing 787 and Volvo Aero is involved in both.

The engines powering the maiden flight were the Rolls-Royce Trent 1000.  Volvo Aero manufactures the largest component in this engine – the fan case.

The other engine type is the General Electric GEnx.  Volvo Aero has been a revenue sharing partner in the GEnx since 2004 with responsibility for design, manufacture and product support on three vital components and manufacture of a further three components.

This is the first aero engine in which Volvo Aero’s own light weight technology will be demonstrated in reality.  The weight of the one components, the Turbine Rear Frame, has been reduced by almost 15% which has contributed to a reduction in fuel consumption of 15% compared to today’s engines.

The GEnx will power the new Boeing 787 and Boeing 747-8 aircraft.  Volvo Aero’s total involvement in the GEnx is anticipated to be worth between 30 and 35 billion Swedish kronor in terms of sales.

“We are extremely pleased to see the Boeing Dreamliner in the air at last. This increases the chances for even more orders,” commented Staffan Zackrisson, President and CEO at Volvo Aero, following the successful maiden flight.

The Boeing 787 was a sales success long before the aircraft took-off.  The order book has shrunk somewhat over the past year as a result of delays associated with the economic recession.  Even so, Boeing has 840 firm orders for the 787.  An additional 25 can be added to this after United Airlines’ recent order.

The 787 will be available in a number of variants: the 787-8 has seating for 210 – 250 passengers and a range of 14 200 – 15 200 kilometres; the 787-9 takes 250 – 290 passengers over a slightly longer range; and the 787-3 takes 290 – 330 passengers over a range of 4600 – 5 650 kilometres.

That fuel consumption has been reduced by so much is not only due lighter and more efficient engines; around half of the load-bearing structures in the airframe are made of composite materials.

Read more about the GEnx engine on General Electric’s homepage:
http://www.geae.com/engines/commercial/genx/index.html

Read more about the Boeing 787, the Dreamliner, on Boeing’s homepage
http://www.boeing.com/commercial/787family/background.html

Boeing also has more information on the Dreamliner on this homepage:
http://www.newairplane.com/