GE Careers Blog.

New GE #Aviation Plant Will Use #Lasers to Build #Jet #Engines Workers at a brand new GE Aviation plant in Auburn, Alabama will be using lasers to drill tiny cooling holes in super-alloy blades for jet engines. “This is one of the most critical and sophisticated components in our jet engines,” says David Joyce, GE [...]

Messier-Bugatti USA LLC is completing a $50 million expansion for its wheels and carbon brakes facility in Walton. The expansion increases the existing carbon brake production facility’s footprint by 40 percent. Messier-Bugatti USA is adding the capacity to accommodate the increase in the plant’s production volumes and refurbishment activities of carbon brake disks for the commercial and military aircraft industry. The Walton facility, which employs 225, is expected to increase employment by 10 percent as a result of the expansion. Messier-Bugatti-Dowty makes aircraft landing and braking systems. It is part of France’s Safran Group. Safran is also the parent of Snecma, a partner with GE Aviation in the Evendale-based aircraft engine joint venture CFM International Inc.

GE Aviation is opening two new advanced manufacturing plants this week, a composite factory in Ellisville, Mississippi and a “super-alloy” plant in Auburn, Alabama. GE has invested $130 million in the plants and plans to hire 550 workers by 2017. Much of the aircraft growth will come from single-aisle planes built by Boeing, Airbus, COMAC and other aircraft makers. This market needs next-generation jet engines like the LEAP, which GE Aviation makes in a joint-venture with France’s Snecma.

GE Aviation has been on a bit of a building boom recently. And the jet engine manufacturer plans to continue to invest in its manufacturing facilities. David Joyce, CEO of Evendale-based GE Aviation, said last week the company will make an announcement in the next 60 to 90 days about a ceramic matrix composites production site.

Since its opening 20 years ago in Durham, workers at GE Aviation’s aircraft engine assembly plant here have assembled about 14,000 engines and engine cores. The plant now employs 316 technicians and 34 support staff. The plant’s staff could grow to as many as 400 technicians due to increases in assembly of the engine products it currently handles, as well as the potential for new products.