In the belly of the beast: Inside one of the world's largest cargo jets

Not all jet engines work hard when they're in the air. Like off-duty pilots flying jump seat, GE sometimes moves its engines in the belly of the massive Antonov An-124 Ruslan freighters operated by the Volga-Dnepr Group. Among the GE businesses that take advantage of the planes' 150-ton cargo capacity is GE Power, which uses them to ship entire power plants to far corners of the world.

One Ruslan arrived at Farnborough International Airshow on Saturday. But the cargo jet isn't Volga-Dnepr's only connection to GE. The airline showed off a brand-new Boeing 747-8 freighter powered by four GEnx-2B jet engines - akin to the engines GE developed for the Dreamliner - this week at the Farnborough International Airshow in England. GE also just signed a $1.4 billion deal to service Volga-Dnepr's GEnx engines.

Pilot and photographer Adam Senatori spent one afternoon exploring both planes. Here's what he brought back. (The jets left on Thursday morning. We were there and you can replay the take-offs on our @ge_reports Periscope channel.)

 

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