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Air Force engine design could help planes fly father on less gas

Turbine engine design could help aircraft fly an average of 30 percent farther on a tank of fuel.

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By John Nolan, Staff Writer 8:39 PM Saturday, October 24, 2009

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE — Air Force Research Laboratory officials said a long-term project to develop a new turbine engine that would reduce fuel consumption by 25 percent also could allow planes to fly longer distances without refueling, easing demand on the Air Force tanker fleet used to refuel aircraft aloft.

Findings of a recently completed first phase of the research indicate that an aircraft equipped with the turbine engine redesign could fly an average of 30 percent farther on a tank of fuel, said Jeff Stricker, chief engineer for the turbine engine division of the AFRL’s propulsion directorate.

That could ease the demand on the Air Force’s fleet of aerial refueling tankers and save the service money, since it costs about 10 times as much as to refuel aloft from a tanker as it does to pump fuel into a plane on the ground, said Matt Meininger, program manager for the Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology research program.

That cost difference includes the expense of maintaining the tanker aircraft and its crew, and flying it the distances needed to catch up with aircraft needing an aerial refueling, Meininger said.

“It’s the difference between $40 per gallon and maybe $2 to $3 a gallon,” Stricker said.

The contracts for the first phase of the research were awarded in 2007. The Air Force has authorized a second phase of the cooperative research with General Electric Co. and Rolls-Royce, to last for approximately the next four years.

The bulk of the work is being done at GE Aircraft Engines’ plant in the Cincinnati suburb of Evendale and Rolls-Royce North American Technologies Inc.’s Liberty Works plant at Indianapolis, with coordinated testing by AFRL researchers at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

GE and Rolls-Royce each are working on their own concepts for the engine, which isn’t expected to go into production until 2019. Ground tests are to be done in 2013. It hasn’t been determined which military aircraft would use the new engines.

Features of the engine designs include improving key components so they can operate at higher pressure and temperatures; providing an additional bypass duct around the engine’s core to allow independent control of the air flow, which could improve engine performance at varying altitudes and under changing operating conditions, and running air through the engine to cool the turbine. The cooling air flow is intended to avoid heat buildup that could otherwise melt engine parts, Stricker said.

The increased heat that the new engine would be subjected to will make it critical to use advanced materials, including ceramics and enhanced metals, that can stay intact at higher temperatures, he said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-2242 or jnolan@DaytonDailyNews.com.

Program’s future

General Electric and Rolls-Royce each split costs of about $100 million with the Air Force for the first phase of the ADVENT turbine engine research. If the contracts awarded to both companies for the next research phase are fully authorized, the additional spending could top $500 million.

Both approaches are expected to produce performance benefits for the Air Force’s next-generation aircraft, said Maj. Gen. Curtis Bedke, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

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