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Old 11-08-2008, 01:18 PM
Brian Carlton Brian Carlton is offline
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Blue Point, NY
Posts: 25,390
Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry Delor View Post
Anybody see the show about the GE90 115B? http://www.geae.com/engines/commercial/ge90/ge90-115b.html
Carbonfiber fanblades, with titanium leading edges. The blades themselves are curved for more volume. Quite impressive it is!
Some more info....http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric_GE90
And a closer shot of those beautiful blades http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:GE90_dsc04644.jpg
GE took a leap forward with the GE-90 that no other manufacturer would do. The risk of carbon fiber on a fan is significant. Typically, it doesn't have anywhere near the impact resistance of titanium. However, the compelling weight benefits on such a large engine were irresistible for GE and resulted in reduced weight for the entire supporting front end of the engine. With an engine that has a weight of about 17,000 lb.........every lb. is important.

To date, there have been no GE-90 fan "incidents" that I'm aware of.........a tribute to GE's design and rigorous testing.
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