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"The show's going very well," Joyce told
reporters at the Farnborough Airshow. "Our customers are very
satisfied with progress we're making on the new engines."
Joyce also said GE Aviation hoped to finalize an engine deal
soon with Qatar Airways over Boeing 777X planes.
Qatar Airways announced a deal for 50 of the 777X, the latest
version of Boeing's best-selling widebody jet, at the Dubai
Airshow. It jointly negotiated the deal with Emirates, which
last week finalised its $56 bln order to buy 150 of the planes.
"They're a tough negotiator," Joyce said of Qatar and its chief
executive, Akbar Al Baker. "He's already agreed to the engines.
We hope to get the services contracting done as part of the
deal. We are confident we'll get to a resolution, we always do."
GE also announced on Tuesday it would be investing $50 million
in a facility for additive manufacturing - also known as 3D
printing - at its plant in Auburn, Alabama.
The facility, which will make the fuel nozzles for the Leap
engines GE makes as part of the CFM joint venture with France's
Safran <SAF.PA>, will have as many as 10 printing machines by
the end of 2015, with the potential to increase this to over 50.
Greg Morris, general manager, additive technologies, says the
group had not yet decided which company would provide the
printing machines. GE currently uses EOS, SLM, Phoenix and Arcam
<ARCM.ST> machines.
"We're in the final stages of selecting the equipment
manufacturers," Morris told Reuters.
(Reporting by Victoria Bryan; Editing by Mark Potter and Jason
Neely)
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