General Electric Aircraft Engines, PEEBLES, Ohio: The first GE Rolls-Royce F136 Short Take-off Vertical Landing (STOVL) development engine has successfully begun testing at GE's outdoor facility in Peebles, Ohio.
The engine was connected to the Rolls-Royce LiftSystem and was fired up for the first time to perform idle leak checks, dry and wet motoring, and to begin its initial mechanical and controls evaluation.
“Another tremendous effort by the team brought our STOVL variant engine to test six days early,” said Bob Griswold, GE's general manager of the F136 program and president of the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team (FET). “We are developing world-class propulsion systems for our customers and we believe we are well suited to match the needs of the F-35.”
Tom Hartmann of Rolls-Royce North America and vice president of the FET, said, “We are very excited about this latest milestone in the program. We have two engines testing and are positioned well as we move into our System Design and Development (SDD) phase in August.”
The STOVL engine is expected to run through May of 2005 and total of 300 hours of testing are planned.
This successful STOVL test is significant as the last major milestone to be achieved in the F136 Phase III, pre-SDD program and is the first major milestone achieved since the FET was awarded its Transition Award Contract in November of 2004. The Transition Award Contract is designed to fund the F136 program until August of 2005 when the FET anticipates the awarding of a new multi-year SDD contract.
Based on the current schedule, SDD development testing commences in 2006, which signals the start of thousands of hours of ground and flight-testing. This culminates with delivery of the first F136 powered F-35's in 2012.
Designed in support of the F-35 program, the F136 will be fully interchangeable and affordable to meet the requirements of all the aircraft variants. Engines will be tested for all JSF variants during Phase III: STOVL for the U.S. Marine Corps and U.K. Royal Navy, CTOL for the U.S. Air Force, and the Carrier Variant (CV) for the U.S. Navy.
BACKGROUND NOTES:
The STOVL engine system uses the common turbomachinery of the F136 Conventional Take Off Landing (CTOL) engine and adds a drive shaft, clutch, 2-stage counter rotating Rolls-Royce LiftFan (for forward “cool” vertical thrust), roll-posts in the wings, (for “cool” roll control thrust), and a 3-Bearing Swivel Module (for aft “hot” vertical thrust). This commonality lends itself well to the F-35 due to the need for affordability, interchangeability, and readiness and is designed to meet all of the customer's Key Performance Parameters (KPPs).
GE Transportation, Aircraft Engines, with responsibility for 60 percent of the F136 program, is developing the core compressor and coupled high pressure/low pressure turbine system components, controls and accessories, and the augmentor.
Rolls-Royce, with 40 percent of the F136 program, is responsible for the front fan, combustor, stages 2 and 3 of the low-pressure turbine, and gearboxes. International partner countries are also contributing to the F136 through involvement in engine development and component manufacturing.
