Sometime this coming spring, airline passengers will be propelled aloft by a jet engine that sets a new record as the world's most powerful. Packing some 52,000 kilograms of thrust-enough that just two engines could carry 365 passengers in a beefed-up Boeing 777 halfway around the world-the $21 million mammoth engine from General Electric is 22 percent more powerful than the previous-generation GE engine.

It's designed to help Boeing beat back rival Airbus, the European aircraft consortium. In 2006, Toulouse, France-based Airbus is expected to begin delivering a new jet called the A380, which can carry 555 passengers. This superjumbo jet is presenting a serious threat to the Boeing 747 jumbo jet. As part of its response (see "Boeing's Flight for Survival," TR September 2003), Chicago-based Boeing decided to soup up its 777 to carry more weight and fly farther-even the 16,700 kilometers of the world's longest route, from Singapore to Los Angeles. But because the 777 has two engines, compared to the A380's four, it needs more power per engine to carry so much weight over such distances.