CFM International at 50: A star on the RISE

America’s greatest inventor, Thomas Edison – whose early companies evolved into General Electric in the 1890s – gives his name to a GE Aerospace initiative that for more than 100 years has been shaping young people with a passion for technology into industry leaders and disruptors of tomorrow.

Emily Davenport is one. The 2021 recruit to the Edison Engineering Development Program (EEDP) is playing a central role in the CFM RISE (Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines) effort to develop and evaluate transformative technologies with a view to powering a new generation of more efficient airliners in the 2030s and beyond.

As a thermal design and heat transfer specialist, Davenport – who has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering as well as a master’s in aerospace engineering – is responsible for three high-pressure turbine (HPT) stage-one blades. These are part of GE Aerospace’s bid to design a more efficient compact engine core as part of its contribution to the project.

Across the whole RISE programme – which was launched just as Emily was embarking on her aerospace career three years ago – design concepts are morphing into functioning components and systems. This includes the HPT, with GE Aerospace confirming that early tests on a demonstrator engine were showing step-change improvements in turbine cooling.

Emily says she loves the “technical rigour and challenge” of her job, saying it gives her “tons of design space to innovate in”. She and her team have the freedom to develop innovations from concept – a technology readiness level (TRL) of one to three – to a TRL of seven-plus, when a working prototype is demonstrated in an operational context.

She also enjoys the “collaborative” aspects of the role. “I work with so many smart colleagues, here in Cincinnati, and at other global sites,” she says. “Across the world we are trying to put so many disruptive technologies into the programme. Every day I learn something new.”

Emily’s first experience of the propulsion sector was in the UK, during an overseas internship with Rolls-Royce in Derby while she was an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. That was when she got the bug: “I felt there was nothing that was going to be more exciting and from then on I set my sights firmly on aerospace,” she says.

After university, her first job was at GE Aerospace’s campus in Cincinnati. She was persuaded by the EEDP’s offer of three to four eight-month rotations in different engineering disciplines and the “great ownership on projects you are working on”. In addition, there was the promise of continuous mentorship, and “great exposure and connections” throughout the global organisation.

Another attraction was the opportunity to pursue a master’s degree, funded by her employer. Emily studied for the qualification remotely at the Georgia Institute of Technology, one of the US’s foremost engineering schools, completing it in May last year.

While she admits that doing the academic work while working day-to-day as an engineer was “challenging at times”, she was helped by the fact that others on her EEDP cohort were studying at the same time. “I had a strong support network, and Georgia Tech gives you a lot of freedom to choose your elective courses, so I was able to tailor it to subjects that would help me in my day job,” she says.

Her rotations on the EEDP allowed her to gain experience in several areas within the hot section of an engine, all the time focusing on fluid dynamics and heat transfer. However, after a stint on blade design she decided that was for her and stayed.

Away from work, Emily is committed to helping others – including young women and those from under-represented groups – get their break in engineering. Emily is a board member of the Society of Women Engineers (Chicago regional section), which hosts STEM engagement events for elementary, middle, and high school students. “A lot of it is knowing what your options are and having the confidence to pursue it as a career,” she says.

She firmly believes that having a workforce as reflective of wider society as possible reaps benefits for businesses. “Everyone grows up with a different perspective and having diverse viewpoints represented results in a better company for everyone,” she says.

In her formative years she “always looked up” to her father – a chemical engineer who worked in the public sector. However, it was a high school robotics project and an inspirational 11th grade physics teacher that convinced the talented math and science student to pursue engineering at college, the first female in her extended family to do so.

While a company like GE Aerospace provides a host of future career options, Emily says she is happy for the time being focusing on RISE. “I’d love to keep doing what I’m doing as I grow in technical expertise,” she says. “Aerospace is a long game. I’m working on things today that won’t be in the field for five, 10, maybe 15 years, and I’d love to see some of these technologies that I’ve worked on at TRL3 reach maturity before I move onto something else.”