Single-crystal turbine blade technology for aero engines, dominated by US now mastered by China and India

In 2018, The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)  named the Pratt & Whitney single crystal turbine blade an historic mechanical engineering landmark. These blades, which can be found in many modern, high-performance gas turbines (a.k.a. jet engines)—including the ones powering the F-22 Raptor, and larger electricity-producing turbines—are grown from a single crystal in a vacuum…