GE's Antique 747 Retrofits to Babysit World's Biggest Jet Engine Until 2027

KEY POINTS

•GE Aerospace bought a 32-year-old Boeing 747-400 from Japan Airlines in 2010 to serve as their Flying Test Bed.
•Equipped with cables, data boxes, and recliners, the 747 supports testing the enormous GE9X engine for Boeing's 777X, which enters service in 2027.
•Test pilots and engineers conduct complex flights from Victorville, California, to Alaska, Canada, and Hawaii gathering vast engine data amid Boeing’s production delays.

GE Aerospace resurrected a 32-year-old Boeing 747-400 that once shuttled humans for Japan Airlines, transforming it into a voluminous flying laboratory, or FTB, crammed with thousands of feet of cables, metal data boxes, and recliner seats that scream 'test your patience here.' Since 2010, this retro beast has racked up over 1,500 test flights mostly out of Victorville, California, hustling all the way to Alaska, Canada, and Hawaii to babysit the massive GE9X engine for Boeing’s 777X—which is seven years late because, surprise, supply chain and quality issues. That engine alone, capable of 110,000 pounds of thrust (peak tested to a mind-boggling 134,300!), needs a plane with a cockpit flown by ex-Marine test pilots balancing asymmetrical thrust like acrobats on an unstable pogo stick. Meanwhile, the cabin’s cushy business-class recliners host up to 20 engineers who monitor around 1,000 parameters of this roaring mechanical beast in real time—because apparently, even jet engines need helicopter parents.