GE Aerospace completes first full hybrid-electric engine test in Peebles
GE Aerospace’s Peebles test site just pushed hybrid-electric aviation closer to flight, with Adams County now tied to a system that could turn local testing into future production.
GE Aerospace’s Peebles Test Operation in Adams County delivered its biggest hybrid-electric milestone yet, completing the first full ground test of a megawatt-class CT7 demonstrator on June 2. The run was the company’s first test of a fully integrated hybrid-electric powertrain, and it simulated taxi, takeoff, climb and cruise while the electric system powered the propeller and sent power back to the battery.
For Adams County, the significance goes beyond aviation engineering. GE Aerospace said it planned to invest $39 million in the Peebles facility this year for test-cell and equipment upgrades, part of a broader 2026 spending plan that includes more than $115 million across the Cincinnati region and a national $1 billion investment across U.S. sites and suppliers. JobsOhio also backed GE’s Ohio work with a $9 million research-and-development grant tied to Peebles and Cincinnati, with plans to create more than 200 new engineering jobs by the end of 2028.
The demonstrator used a long list of flightworthy parts that GE said had to work together as one system: GE Aerospace-developed motor/generators, power converters, inverters and controllers, Dowty propellers, Avio Aero gearboxes, a CT7 engine, BAE Systems batteries and an Aurora Flight Sciences nacelle. GE said the test followed more than a decade of component and module testing, a reminder that the work in Peebles is built on years of capital investment and highly specialized labor, not a single breakthrough. Arjan Hegeman, GE Aerospace’s vice president for future of flight, called it a “major turning point” and said the program is aimed at durability, efficiency and range in future propulsion systems.
The next step is flight testing, most likely on a converted Saab 340 twin turboprop regional airliner with one of its two CT7 engines replaced by the hybrid system. NASA said a December 2025 Peebles demonstration of a modified Passport engine, under the HyTEC project, was the first test of an integrated hybrid system and produced real data on how the technology could work in flight. GE’s broader RISE program, unveiled in 2021, has logged more than 350 tests and more than 3,000 endurance cycles, and the company says it is targeting more than 20% better fuel burn than commercial engines in service today. For Peebles, that keeps Adams County on the map as a place where future aerospace work is being proven before it ever reaches an airframe.
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