Record orders boost local GE business

DAYTON, Ohio (Dayton Business Journal) - A record amount of new orders for GE Aviation will bolster the company’s Dayton-area operations, the aerospace company reported Monday.

The company recently announced that commitments for some of its engines will lead to long-term stability for a GE facility in Beavercreek that employs more than 300 workers and makes tubes, ducts and manifolds.

The GE90 engine came off its most successful year in 2011, accumulating airline and freighter operator commitments for 400 engines with a list price of more than $11 billion. That surpassed the previous record of 250 engine commitments in 2007.

For CFM International, the joint venture between GE Aviation and France’s Snecma, 2011 was a record year with 1,500 orders for the CFM56 engine and 3,056 commitments for LEAP engines. The combined value of these orders and commitments is $51.7 billion at list price.

The new commitments mean long-term stability at the Dayton facility, as well as gradual employment growth, because the record amount of orders are for engines yet to be built, said a GE Aviation spokesperson.

Fairfield, Conn.-based General Electric has more than 3,500 workers in the Dayton region at facilities in Vandalia, Beavercreek, Kettering and West Chester.

GE Aviation division is building a 115,000-square-foot Electrical Power Integrated Systems Research and Development Center. Dubbed EPISCENTER, it will sit on River Park Drive on the University of Dayton campus.