Engines
GE's Hybrid-electric Investments Promise Big Payoff
A seventh test cell at GE Aerospace’s EPISCenter in Dayton, Ohio, marks another phase in the company’s commitment to hybrid-electric propulsion technology.
A GE Aerospace engineer tests a current sensor board at the company's EPISCenter facility in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo: GE Aerospace)
A GE Aerospace engineer tests a current sensor board at the company's EPISCenter facility in Dayton, Ohio. (Photo: GE Aerospace)

A $20 million investment announced this week by GE Aerospace to add a new test cell and equipment at the Electrical Power Integrated Systems Center (EPISCenter) in Dayton, Ohio, underscored the company’s commitment to hybrid electric powerplant technology in the coming years.

What will become the facilities’ seventh test cell will add another 2 MW of testing capacity to support NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) program. Plans for EPFD call for ground and flight tests of the hybrid-electric system this decade using a modified Saab 340B aircraft and GE’s CT7 engines in collaboration with Boeing. NASA also previously awarded GE Aerospace a contract for the Turbofan Engine Power Extraction Demonstration under the Hybrid Thermally Efficient Core (HyTEC) project.

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