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.
Darryl Roberson knows a little bit about flying jets. After flying F-4s, F-15s, F-16s, and F-22s over a 34-year Air Force career—a rarity in a modern, specialized world—he’s now helping to bring a new age of modern engineering and manufacturing to today’s warfighters.
The Air Force propulsion program tasked with producing engines for the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter awarded contracts to a mix of engine makers and aircraft builders Aug. 19, hinting that integration could be a priority in the prototyping process. GE Aviation, Pratt & Whitney, ...
Reduced competition, over-reliance on legacy systems, and declining funding are all contributing to a “critical inflection point” in propulsion for the Pentagon and industry members—and things are headed in the wrong direction, the director of the Air Force’s propulsion directorate warned. Speaking with reporters at ...
The Air Force would have to bear the full development and integration cost of putting new Adaptive Engine Technology Program engines in its F-35 fleet because the other services can’t fit the powerplants in their versions of the fighter, F-35 Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. ...
The first airplanes were powered by piston engines turning propellers, and when gas turbine engines emerged decades later, they quickly proved able to propel aircraft higher, further, and faster. The cycle repeated itself with the turbofan in the 1960s and ’70s. Yet as dazzling as ...