There are so many helicopters in Brazil’s largest city, São Paulo, that The Guardian newspaper in Manchester, England, has termed it “the real-life South American episode of the ‘Jetsons,’” the 1960s animated send-up of future life.

To Chet Fuller, GE Aviation’s chief marketing officer, the recent decline in fuel prices is temporary because pressures from global warming and energy demands from growing economies will eventually push them up again. “That’s why we are working hard on open-rotor technologies for narrowbody applications that will be based on the eCore [GE’s next-gen gas generator for business jets, regional jets and single-aisle 130-to 150-passenger jetliners now powered by the GE/Snecma CFM56 and IAE V2500 turbofans],” Fuller said in an interview late last year.

General Electric’s acquisition of Smiths Aerospace in May 2007 marked an expansion from engine building into aircraft systems. No sooner than the ink had dried on the purchase contract, the Cincinnati-based OEM was busy developing a strategy integrating cyber-based aircraft systems with its engine products.