I am fortunate that flying in unusual or novel aircraft comes with the territory in my job, but my latest assignment to visit the ‘big three’ engine makers for our May 23 propulsion special was noteworthy for the sheer variety of types flown over a short span of days.

Aviation Week's Guy Norris recently had the opportunity to fly on General Electric's newest flying testbed, a former JAL Boeing 747-400 based at the company's Victorville Flight Test Operations in California.

The engine-maker is using the latest in supply-chain methodologies and assembly line design to meet its production goals.

For big production increases, including for the PW1000G, Pratt is investing in manufacturing initiatives such as “intelligent” or automated production cells and advanced materials.

The delivery of the Trent XWB engine brings Rolls-Royce a step nearer to realizing its long-cherished dream of exclusivity across a widebody family.

As GE readies for a series of new campaigns culminating in flights of the GE9X in 2017, it is feeling the operational benefit of changes made to cope with a set of simultaneous test efforts, which hit an all-time record in 2015.

GE and Boeing plan to put the behemoth engine—GE9-X—through the rigors of flight testing on the wing of an aircraft for which it was not designed.

Rolls-Royce’s Trent 1000 TEN is designed to improve fuel burn by 2% over the current Package C production standard and is therefore crucial to the company’s long-term competitiveness battle against GE’s GEnx-1B, the alternate engine for the 787.