Specialists keep refining the little-known process because even small gains in temperature, speed or weight cut fuel use. Fifoot called the work a real motivator to get out of bed in the morning.
Blades are also cast with tiny internal channels so cooler air can form a protective film in service. Ceramic coatings add a further heat barrier.
Those blades are not cut or sculpted from metal. They are grown as single crystals of a nickel-based alloy.
Without that control, the metal would freeze as many jumbled grains. Grain boundaries weaken the part at high temperature and load.
If two crystals form instead of one, the casting is scrapped and the alloy reprocessed.
In the 1960s, engineers learned to pour molten alloy into a blade mould and cool it slowly from one end over several hours so that one crystal fills the shape.
Every time an airliner flies, hundreds of small turbine blades inside its engines endure mechanical stress and temperatures above 1,500C.
Investment in the technology has risen. In September, GE Aerospace said it would buy its turbine-blade supplier for $11.75bn. Neither firm commented to requests for comment; the deal has been described as a move to lock in supply of a critical component. If we can take any weight out of it, you can run that engine more efficiently using less fuel — you can spin it faster and hotter, Fifoot said.