Ge Aviation Overview

The company has a dedicated research centre, located in Poland called the Institute of Aviation. General Electric, GE Aviation’s parent, sends employees here to work in engineering design centres where they research new jet propulsion techniques. And it’s whilst doing this, that they can become accredited with engineering institutes.

As well as the typical IMechE route, GE Aviation also supports gaining association with the Royal Aeronautical Society, providing routes to becoming a chartered or an incorporated engineer.

But its main focus is on the NADCAP – National Aerospace and Defence Contractors Accreditation Program. This is a global cooperative that sets the standards for aerospace and related engineers. With this the employees receive training by means of regional meetings given by existing accredited engineers.

The company also has many corporate entry level programs – one of which is the Edison Engineering Development Program which gives employees assignments to complete over say a 2 year period. The qualification gained with this is really an internal company grade and so they don’t become accredited and can’t stick all the fancy abbreviations after their names.

And of course they do student placements, so students can gain an understanding of the company and a working environment.

So the company’s customers – well as they’ve been established for such a long time, they’ve gained a global customer base. I’m going to look at the engine side of the business which basically involves providing engines for commercial aircraft, and also military - so large organisations such as the US department of defence for example. And of course they provide engines to the two biggest players in the aircraft business: Boeing and Airbus. This was mainly due to them merging with Smiths Aerospace in 2007 for 2.4 billion pounds.

So what’s the recent news? Well their install base now exceeds 50,000 engines which is a significant increase from around 5,000 in 1990. They’ve...