GUY NORRIS / EAST HARTFORD
Manufacturer begins year-long test programme which will ultimately involve seven engines, starting with CTOL
Pratt & Whitney ran the F135 engine for the Lockheed MartinF-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) for the first time at its West Palm Beach test site in Florida on 9 October. It begins a year-long effort that will ultimately involve seven ground test engines.
The first engine is one of three conventional take-off and landing (CTOL) F135s planned for the system development and demonstration ground test phase. All three CTOL test engines will be running by January, says P&W F135 programmes director Bill Gostic. He adds that the second engine will be tested in the Arnold Engineering Development Center's high-altitude site in Tennessee next January. Military power tests of the first engine are due to start before 22 October and "...a week or two later we'll be running with afterburner".
Ground tests on the first of four short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) F135 propulsion systems are due to start around April. P&W is running a rigorous "risk-reduction" schedule that has already allowed it to start tests of the CTOL engine before the original 30 October target. Gostic expects all four STOVL test engines will join the programme by October 2004.
Pending successful tests, the initial release of the F135 CTOL engine is due in July 2005 with first flight of the F-35 JSF on track for October 2005. Release of the more complex STOVL variant and its associated Rolls-Royce and Hamilton Sundstrand-developed lift and control system is expected the following December, with first flight of the initial STOVL F-35 in April 2006. In all, P&W plans to deliver flight test engines for eight CTOL, six STOVL and four CV (carrier) variant F-35s to cover four major flight test blocks between 2005 and 2010.
The F135 is based on the F119 engine derivative tested in the Lockheed Martin X-35 JSF concept demonstration aircraft. The revamped F135 engine, while externally virtually identical to the JSF119, is reconfigured for production standards and has a far longer service life. Gostic says design refinements are ongoing to reduce the weight of the engine, which is above target for both CTOL and STOVL versions.
Source: Flight International
