GE shows off F-35 engine prototype
Thursday, February 05, 2009
EVENDALE — General Electric Co. on Thursday, Feb. 5, gave news organizations a look at one of the engines that will power the Joint Strike Fighter, the next-generation fighter aircraft for the Air Force, Navy, Marines and key U.S. allies.
The F136 engine, a joint project of GE and British partner Rolls-Royce plc, is being developed under a seven-year, $2.4 billion contract from the U.S. government. U.S. allies are providing some of the money because they plan to buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, also.
Rival manufacturer Pratt & Whitney is developing a competing, F135 engine that also will power the Joint Strike Fighter. The aircraft and its engines are being designed to handle everything from vertical takeoffs and landings to landing on the short decks of aircraft carriers.
Congress ordered the engine competition in hopes it will reduce costs for the taxpayers. GE, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney are the world's dominant manufacturers of large engines for military and commercial planes.
The Air Force portion of the Joint Strike Fighter program is managed by a 75-person staff in the 640th Aeronautical Systems Squadron, part of the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
GE operated the prototype version of its engine for the first time last week, after the U.S. government had validated the engine's design.
GE's production process for the F136 engine includes the company's GE Elano plant in Xenia, which makes metal tubes, ducts, bellows and manifold assemblies. The Elano plant, located at 2455 Dayton-Xenia Rd., employs about 700 people. GE has three engine subcontractors in the Dayton region, but declined to identify them for competitive reasons.
GE obtained the government's approval to allow reporters and photographers a rare, close-up opportunity to see the nearly 18.5-foot-long engine in a test building inside GE's 1940s-era jet engine-making complex along Interstate 75 in suburban Cincinnati.
The test building allows engineers to subject test engines to simulated flight operating conditions at up to three times the speed of sound and 30,000 feet in altitude. The GE-Rolls-Royce fighter engine team plans 10,000 hours of ground testing and 1,100 hours of flight testing between now and 2012, when production of the engines is to start. Pratt & Whitney, which began in the program earlier and is three years ahead, is to start production of its F135 engine this year.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.
