PAUL LEWIS / MONTREAL & GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES
Alternative powerplant will compete with P&W F135 for up to 5,000 potential domestic and international aircraft orders
The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme office plans to begin ordering General Electric/Rolls-Royce F136-powered Lockheed Martin F-35s as early as 2009. The move will offer an alternative to the Pratt & Whitney F135 lead powerlant ahead of full-rate production and in time to meet the US Navy's and UK's initial operational capability date of 2012.
"The first three lots we buy will be powered by P&W. Lots 4 and 5 will be non-competitively split between the F135 and F136 to get some production experience on the GE/R-R team and then with Lot 6 we'll have head-to-head competition," says Dan Kunec, programme office propulsion manager.
F136 development is around three years behind that of the F135, with the GE/R-R programme still in risk reduction and not scheduled to enter system development and demonstration (SDD) before late 2004. The Department of Defense plans to order the first batch of 10 low-rate initial production F-35s for the US Air Force and Marine Corps in 2006. By the time the first F136-powered JSF is funded, orders for the F135-engined variant will only total 86 fighters.
"If you believe the overall potential numbers of international and domestic JSFs - roughly 4,000 to 5,000 aircraft - we're coming in very early in its lifetime," says Bob Griswold, GE F136 general manager. "We would like the UK to be the first potential international customer, and we'd like to be available for international customers about a year after the USA. We want people to understand a second engine is available and there is a very strong team in place from a price, reliability, durability and support perspective," adds Tom Hartmann, R-R vice-president F136 programme.
In the current phase, which has entered the preliminary design review stage, two engines will be built, including one for the short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) JSF variant, and run in mid-2004. The first F136-powered conventional take-off landing F-35 is due to fly in mid-2008, followed by the STOVL aircraft in late 2008 and the carrier version in 2009. SDD will involve 13,000h of testing on 11 engines plus the two pre-SDD engines.
Under a process described as "co-opetition", GE is supporting P&W and R-R in the development of common STOVL lift system hardware. "The system must interface with the F136 turbo machinery and function identically. If the pilot can't tell the difference, we'll consider it a success," says Kunec.
Source: Flight International
