Overview

GE entered the aviation business while World War I raged in Europe, when Sanford Moss designed an air-cooled turbo-supercharger to enable military piston aircraft to fly higher. The design was tested on Pikes Peak to demonstrate its capability and durability. Based on the tests, the military gave GE a big contract for turbo-superchargers, but the war ended before production began, and the contract was canceled. (GE's turbo-superchargers did play a major role in World War II, however.)

GE's aircraft engine business started with the military as well. General Electric built America's first jet engine for the Army Air Corps in 1942 the centrifugal-flow I-A that used Sir Frank Whittle's British design. GE was selected to do this because of all of their experience with turbo-superchargers. The production run was 15 engines.

In 1943, GE designed, developed and built the 4000-lb thrust centrifugal-flow J33 that powered Lockheed's P-80 Lightning. (At the war's end, the government turned production of the J33 over to the Allison Division of General Motors.) In the same year, GE also designed and developed the 4000-lb axial-flow J35 for the Republic P-84 and Northrop's flying wing. (Citing GE's limited production capacity, the government awarded prime production responsibility to Chevrolet and, when Chevrolet started building cars again, to Allison.)

In 1946, the Supercharger Engineering Department at Lynn redesigned the J35 to deliver 5000 lb of thrust. This new engine, the J47, was installed in the F-86 Sabrejet, the B-45 bomber, the B-47, and later the B-36. Thousands of these...