The engines for the hyper-secret Next Generation Air Dominance fighter will be a different size than the adaptive engines developed for an F-35 upgrade, but many of the technologies will “port over” to the new powerplant, the Air Force’s propulsion czar told reporters Aug. 1.
“The F-35 is the most advanced fighter yet built, but decisions and compromises imposed on it more than a decade ago continue to push up its cost, decrease its reliability, limit its performance, and constrain its ability to exploit new technologies. For fighter pilots of ...
The F-35 Joint Program Office is sticking by its endorsement of Pratt & Whitney’s Engine Core Upgrade (ECU) for the F135 powerplant, saying the improvement will meet all the fighter’s future needs for power. But it declined to weigh in on the increasingly combative war ...
F-35 maker Lockheed Martin thinks the Pentagon should reverse course and pursue the more expensive but technologically advanced Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) for future versions of the fighter, rather than the more incremental F135 Engine Core Upgrade chosen by the Air Force in its ...
The Air Force couldn't find a place for Adaptive Engine Technology Program powerplants on the F-35 in its fiscal 2024 budget request, opting to harvest what it can from its $4 billion investment and press on to the Next-Generation Advanced Propulsion program.
The looming decision on the future of the F-35’s engine—Pratt & Whitney’s F135—has fostered plenty of debate, with some suggesting the F135 should be completely replaced with a new engine through the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP), while others say integrating a new adaptive engine into...
Pratt & Whitney has developed a fix for F135 engines afflicted with “harmonic resonance,” which should only take 30 minutes per affected engine to correct, company officials said. Deliveries of the engine, which powers the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter, resumed Feb. 18 after nearly ...
If the Air Force and Pentagon decide the F-35 fighter needs an all-new engine, it wouldn’t just give the jet range and performance improvements—it would drive a refresh of the entire fighter propulsion industrial base, a GE Aerospace official claimed Feb. 16. Competitor Pratt & ...
Pratt & Whitney would like to keep its monopoly on supplying powerplants for the F-35 fighter fleet and is pushing for the government to choose an upgrade of the F135 engine instead of an all-new adaptive engine, which it said would be far more costly ...
Generational improvements to combat propulsion performance have never been more pressing for the U.S. as it seeks to ensure continued air dominance in tempestuous theaters like the Indo-Pacific. GE Aerospace's XA100 is the most advanced combat engine in the world, and if implemented it would ...
The Pentagon will soon decide whether to move ahead with a new engine for the F-35, and officials won’t simply table the issue indefinitely, Defense Department acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said at an acquisition conference. He also said calls to break up the ...
Nearly 50 members of Congress have urged Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to fund a new phase of development for advanced fighter engines in the fiscal 2024 budget, sending a letter to the Pentagon on Oct. 7. The letter, signed by 49 lawmakers from ...