GE Aviation investments reached $4.3 billion in its expanding U.S. operations during 2011-2016. The U.S. investments include $214 million to establish five new plants in Ellisville, Miss.; Auburn, Ala.; Asheville, N.C.; Lafayette, Ind.; and Huntsville, Ala. These new facilities created approximately 2 million square feet of new manufacturing floor space. In addition, GE Aviation upgraded its current U.S. operations, including expansions in West Jefferson, N.C., and Hooksett, N.H. The company also created centers for emerging technologies such as additive manufacturing, digital engine monitoring, ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) and electrical distribution.

In an effort to advance additive manufacturing, GE Aviation created the Additive Development Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a component production operation in Auburn, where more than 40 additive machines are mass producing commercial and military engine components. 

GE Aviation is creating a fully integrated supply chain to mass produce components from this advanced material: from its CMC raw-materials plant in Huntsville to CMC manufacturing research labs in Cincinnati and Newark, Del., to full-scale CMC production in Asheville.