General Electric announced Friday that it has started certification testing for its GE9X, the powerful new engine that will lift Boeing’s 777X jetliner into the sky. As a refresher, Wired magazine has a nice write up of some of the features which make the new engine stand out.

GE has spent about 13 months running the first GE9X test engine.

The program’s general manager Ted Ingling told ATW: “Historically, the first engine to test is not separated by the second engine by a year-plus. That was by intent that we moved that first engine forward to allow us as a design team to validate the architecture of this new engine, learn, and adapt those learnings into the certification baseline.

By the end of the year, GE expects to have the fourth test engine (which is currently in production) mounted and conducting flight tests aboard the company’s 747-400 test platform above the Mojave Desert.

In other engine news, Aerion Corporation and GE Aviation are studying engine requirements for Aerion’ proposed AS2 supersonic business jet.

Dan Catchpole: 425-339-3454; dcatchpole@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @dcatchpole.