Lockheed Martin F-35 engine partners GE and Rolls-Royce plan to resume testing of their F136 powerplant early next year, possibly as early as January.
Testing was abruptly halted last month after engine blades were damaged by a lug that attaches the diffuser panel to the engine. The lug was sucked into the combustor and struck blades in the back of the engine. The diffuser on the F136 directs air around the combustor.
A Rolls-Royce spokesman describes the remanufacturing of the diffuser panels as an “easy fix”, and the modifications to the three test engines are underway. Testing should resume shortly after, early next year, he says. The two partners plan to have six engines in testing by the end of 2010.
Two of the three engines have undergone testing, and the Rolls-Royce spokesman explains the GE/Rolls-Royce team plans to install the remanufactured diffuser panel on all three powerplants.
Controversy has swirled around funding the F136 programme since 2006. The Department of Defense has tried to cancel the programme for four years, but Congress has reinserted funding each time. The Obama administration raised the stakes this year, initially threatening to veto the $680 billion defence bill over the F136 funding issue.
The House added funds for the F136 anyway, but the Senate’s version of the bill excluded the F136 from the budget. Both chambers are now meeting in Congress to resolve that key issue. The White House plans to veto the bill only if additional funds for the F136 “substantially” disrupt the F-35 programme. The House has removed funding for two F-35 jets to pay for the F136 programme.
Rolls-Royce appears to be banking on the F136 receiving full funding. During the second quarter of next year the company plans to break ground on a new 12,077 sq m (130,000 sq ft) facility in Prince George, Virginia largely dedicated to production of blisks for the engine.
The facility is part of a 1,000 acre complex under development by Rolls-Royce known as Crosspointe.
Crosspointe EVP of operations Thomas Loehr admits a “preponderance of volume” at the second facility at the site is dedicated to F136 blisk production. Rolls-Royce has already broken ground on the first facility at Crosspointe – a 13,006 sq m structure dedicated to disc production of the Trent 900, 1000 and XWB engines.
Loehr says Rolls-Royce obviously supports continued funding for the F136, and the company hasn’t determined at the moment where the volume at the new blisk facility would be absorbed if funding collapses.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
