GE Tests Hybrid Jet Engine for Boeing 737-Sized Planes

Commercial aviation just took a major step toward cleaner skies without the impossible weight of all-electric flight.

GE Aerospace has successfully ground-tested a hybrid-electric jet engine that could power medium-sized passenger planes. Think of it like a Prius, but for a Boeing 737.

For over 50 years, engineers have struggled with a stubborn math problem. Batteries have just 1/50th the energy of jet fuel, meaning you'd need 50 pounds of batteries to replace one pound of fuel. And unlike fuel that burns off and lightens the plane, batteries stay heavy the whole flight.

That reality has kept electric planes stuck as tiny experimental aircraft or short-hop puddle jumpers. But GE found a smarter approach: don't replace the jet engine, supplement it.

The new system embeds electric motor-generators right into the jet engine's core. During takeoff and climbing, when planes guzzle the most fuel, the electric motors kick in to help spin the turbofan using stored battery power. During descent and taxiing, those same components flip to generator mode, recharging the batteries and powering cabin systems.

The hybrid design eliminates the need for auxiliary power units that currently provide electricity on planes. It's essentially getting free power from phases of flight that normally waste energy.

GE developed the technology through NASA's Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration project. The ground tests used a modified GE Passport engine and proved the system can handle the intense heat and vibration of actual flight conditions.

The Bright Side: This breakthrough doesn't require waiting for battery technology to magically improve fiftyfold. The hybrid approach works with today's batteries and today's jet engines, making cleaner commercial aviation achievable in the near term rather than some distant future.

Even better, the latest tests proved the engine can operate in hybrid mode without needing intermediate battery systems, simplifying the design. The system runs on a megawatt scale, generating serious power while cutting fuel consumption during the most demanding flight phases.

Commercial aviation accounts for about 2-3% of global carbon emissions, and that number keeps growing as more people fly. Solutions that work on existing aircraft sizes, rather than requiring everyone to switch to tiny electric planes, could make a real dent in those emissions.

The technology that seemed absurd just became inevitable.