GE unveiled a new advanced turboprop engine yesterday that produces 10 percent more power than its peers and burns 20 percent less fuel. Its design can extend time between overhauls by as much as 30 percent. Textron Aviation, the company behind such aircraft brands as Beechcraft, Cessna and Bell Helicopter, will use the engine to power a new plane that’s currently in development. “This is by far the biggest win of my 35-year career in aviation,” says Brad Mottier, a vice president of business and general aviation and integrated systems at GE Aviation, who himself is a pilot. But GE’s turboprop-engine business has even deeper roots. They go to the very beginning of aviation.

On May 22, 1906, Orville and Wilbur Wright received a patent for “new and useful improvements to the flying machine.” Top image: Czech engineers weren’t far behind them. In 1910, Jan Kaspar became the first Czech pilot. He designed his own plane and engine, but later flew in this Bleriot XI. Image credit: GE Reports