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Today’s American Airlines flight 1916 from Dallas/Fort Worth to Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport just landed in the aviation history books — and marked a new era in U.S. airspace modernization. Captain Brian Will flew the 737 using a high-tech, computerized flight path known as RNP — which stands for Required Navigation Performance technology. Put simply, RNP allows planes to follow highly precise, customized, gently curving paths that eliminate the inefficient straight-line flight segments — most noticeable in stair step landing approaches — that take longer to fly, burn more fuel, churn out more emissions and can add to air traffic congestion and delayed flights. What makes today’s flight historic is that it’s the first time a U.S. flight has used a publicly available, commercially designed RNP flight path. Prior to the path becoming a permanent fixture at Bradley, the FAA had designed all public RNP paths in the U.S. Now, with a third party — GE Aviation’s Naverus business — getting the green light to publish the path, the gateway is open for widespread adoption of the technology. As GE’s Steve Fulton says in the audio interview below, “Our vision is that there are going to be thousands of these procedures required as part of the transition underway in the United States.”

From an artist’s concept at the Farnborough Air Show of what passenger planes of the future might look like, to vintage and experimental planes at the Oshkosh Air Show, aviation design has been turning heads in recent weeks. But just as critical as the sleek lines on airframes or the gleaming engine blades that can be seen from the tarmac, are the designs inside the engine doing an array of complex work. GE’s Engineering Design Center (EDC) in Warsaw, Poland is one the key places where design hurdles that the casual traveler can’t see are overcome. With the center celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, we asked Magdalena Nizik, the center’s managing director, to give us a peek under the hood at EDC. “Our designers are responsible for the engine’s inner sections, its turbomachinery,” Magdalena says. “It takes many years to develop a new part: the calculations and drawings, testing, production and making sure the parts are being produced according to the drawings. At EDC, we are supporting the aviation product through its life cycle, from the conceptual phase to when it ceases production.”

The Oshkosh Air Show just wrapped, and as we described in our first story, one of the themes this year was electric flight. As Chet Fuller, president of GE Aviation Civil Systems, explained at the first ever World Symposium on Electric Flight during the air show, the future of flight will involve electrically powered components taking on a much bigger share of the plane. Importantly, all of those new technologies have to interact seamlessly and with maximum efficiency. “It’s basically putting smart grid on the airplane,” he says.

Dubbed “the world’s greatest aviation celebration,” the annual Oshkosh Air Show has been putting the most futuristic technologies side-by-side with some of the most beautiful vintage planes — all in the same Wisconsin field. Formally known as the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) AirVenture Air Show, the hugely popular event has been taking place since 1953, with more than 500,000 people from all over the world attending each year — everyone from airplane builders and pilots, to aviation companies and enthusiasts. This year, we’re taking a look at GE Aviation’s presence at the show — which includes the push to radically change how planes of the future use electric power — and getting a close-up look at the main attractions via flip-cam videos shot by GE’s Eden Cruz. Here’s a quick peek at one of the daily air shows at the weeklong event.

In our recent video with John Lehman – Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy from 1981 to 1987 — he warned that not having an engine competition for the new Joint Strike Fighter risks a repeat of the disastrous outcomes of the initial F-14 and F-15 programs. Now, retired generals with years of direct experience are also making the case for continued engine competition between the GE-Rolls Royce F136 engine and the one being built by Pratt & Whitney. In the first video clip below, General Gregory S. Martin, who has more than 4,600 flying hours in various aircraft, explains how costs are dramatically driven down in head-to-head competitions. General Martin is a retired Commander of the Air Force Material Command and a former Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Allied Air Forces Northern Europe. He now consults for the aerospace industry, including GE Aviation.