Let the competition begin!
Pratt & Whitney and General Electric each has received more than $1 billion from the Defense Department to develop the next generation of jet fighter engines by September 2021.
Even as Pratt’s F135 military engine is threading its way through the final phases of entry into regular service on the Pentagon’s newest F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the Defense Department is looking for its successor.
The F-35 is the fifth generation jet fighter in U.S. history, but in view of the ever-changing nature of military challenges around the world, the Defense Department says, it needs to keep research moving toward the sixth generation.
The rivalry between Pratt and GE to win contracts for military airplane engines dates back to the 1980s. Pratt won the last round with the exclusive contract to build engines for the F-35, a decision GE protested vigorously.
To that end, the Pentagon’s Adaptive Engine Transition Program is designed to bring to the next fighter engine the latest advances in “fuel efficient adaptive engine component technologies” in preparation for “next-generation propulsion system development for multiple combat aircraft applications,” according to Defense Department contract listings.
The contracts call for designing, fabricating, and testing multiple prototypes of 45,000-pound-thrust turbofan engines.
Pratt will split the work between its East Hartford and West Palm Beach, Florida, plants.
General Electric’s GE Aviation division, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, will do the new engine research work at the Ohio plant.
Both GE and Pratt also will conduct some of the research at the U.S. Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex in Tennessee.
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, at Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, is the contracting base.
Not surprisingly, the companies have issued dueling news releases proclaiming themselves best prepared to develop the winning engine prototype.
“Pratt & Whitney is building on its position as the world’s only fifth-generation engine manufacturer” to prepare for engineering, manufacturing, and development programs for next generation combat aircraft, James Kenyon, senior director of Pratt’s advanced programs and technology, said in a news release.
“We believe our program plan fully embraces the spirit and intent of the U.S. Air Force’s goals to provide a highly capable adaptive engine design with the ability to power a wide range of future and legacy aircraft,” Kenyon said.
Pratt has gained “tremendous insight” from its experience designing engines for the F-22 Raptor fighter jet and the F-35, he said.
Dan McCormick, general manager of GE Aviation’s advanced combat engine program, expressed equal optimism that his company has the competitive edge.
“We believe GE is best positioned to integrate the adaptive suite of technologies into existing and next-generation combat aircraft,” McCormick said in a news release.
The “adaptive” technologies both companies are developing involve producing something of a hybrid engine that is able to switch from a mostly fuel-efficient mode, like those used on military transport aircraft, to a high-performance mode needed by fighter jets. The engines also can use what both companies call a “third stream” of cooled air, as a way to increase engine thrust, improve fuel efficiency, and reduce engine heating.
Each company also claims to be the most advanced in developing such technology.
Pratt demonstrated a third-stream test engine prototype in 2013, Kenyon said. By early 2017, the company expects to demonstrate the technology in “an actual engine environment,” he said.
From a timing standpoint, Kenyon continued, the Pentagon program will benefit from Pratt’s “technology maturation experience,” such as the technologies already being used in the F-35 engines, which have allowed the company to achieve the “highest-ever” operating temperature in a production-based fighter engine.
McCormick, meantime, says GE’s Adaptive Engine Technology Development program dates back to 2007.
“For nearly a decade, GE Aviation has successfully partnered with the Department of Defense to effectively design, manufacture, and test our revolutionary combination” of engine technology advancements, he said
McCormick said GE is the “only engine manufacturer to have successfully tested a full three-stream adaptive cycle engine.”
GE is “best positioned to integrate the adaptive suite of technologies into existing and next-generation combat aircraft,” he added.
