GE Aviation has been selected as the sole engine supplier for the next version of The Boeing Co.’s 777 twin-aisle plane still under development.

Seattle, Wash.-based Boeing picked GE Aviation to make the engine for the new plane 777X, expected to go on the market near the end of the decade.

GE Aviation, headquartered in Evendale, in suburban Cincinnati, previously said it was preparing to provide the engine for Boeing. It beat out competitors Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce for the Boeing business.

GE Aviation is in early stages of development for the engine study program called GE9X. The study will develop the next generation engine in the GE90 engine family; GE90 currently powers the existing Boeing 777 jumbo jet, said GE spokeswoman Deborah Case. Plans are for the new engine that comes out of the GE9X study to power the 777X plane.

“We are studying airplane improvements that will extend today’s 777 efficiencies and reliability for the next two decades or longer, and the engines are a significant part of that effort,” said Bob Feldmann, vice president and general manager of 777X development for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, in a statement. Boeing announced the selection Friday.

Future 777 models will increase fuel efficiency, enhance passenger comfort and have longer distance, Boeing said.

Advances incorporated into the jet engine study GE9X will include compositive materials and better fuel burn, Case said.

GE90 was the company’s first engine to use composite fan blades, a lightweight material.

In the GE9x engine study, GE wants to also make the casing that goes around fan blades out of composite materials, Case said. The new engine will have about a 10 percent improved fuel burn, she said.

Also, GE Aviation is beginning to use ceramic matrix composite material, a new, more durable material that can handle higher temperatures. It is first being used in the LEAP engine, an engine produced by GE Aviation’s joint venture CFM International and which hasn’t entered service yet. The jet engine maker is looking to also use ceramic matrix composites in the future GE9X.

GE Aviation has about 8,600 employees in the Cincinnati-Dayton region, including its headquarters, engineering facilities and CFM International operations in Butler County, and component suppliers in the Dayton area. CFM International is the West Chester Twp.-based joint venture of GE Aviation and French company Snecma, also a jet engine manufacturing company.