Program Now In "Excellent Shape"

Pratt & Whitney's Thomas Johnson, chief engineer of the F135 program, and Jim Dunn, chief of validation and test, visited the US Air Force's Arnold Engineering Development Center (AEDC) Sept. 12 to prepare for the conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) qualification test for the F-35's F135-PW-100 engine.

Two important qualification engines for the F135 program are scheduled to arrive at AEDC in late October and will be tested through the end of January 2006.

"As of today, the F135 program is in excellent shape," Johnson said. "We have completed our post test critical design review and have more than 3,500 hours of development and accelerated mission testing on the CTOL, carrier variant (CV) as well as the short takeoff vertical landing (STOVL) engines."

Johnson explains the next portion of the program saying, "The next big event is flight clearing for the A-1 first aircraft, which will fly in August 2006. The F135 team is focused on qualifying the first CTOL flight ready engine and has gone through the first of three flight clearance reviews."

At the same time, they are also developing the STOVL propulsion system, which is running concurrent with the CTOL flight clearance program.

"Things are going very well for us and we are really pleased with the amount of work and activity we have been able to accomplish at AEDC," Dunn said. "AEDC has been a big part of our program and are going to be a big part of getting us to first flight."

For an outlook on the program Johnson (right) gave a goal of what the F135 Team will accomplish in five years and how AEDC would participate in fulfilling those goals.

"In five years we will have shipped both the first CTOL Low Rate Initial Production (LRIP) engines and the first STOVL LRIP engines," he said. "But the System Design and Development program is not over at that point because we will be finishing all the flight tests. We will be delivering early production lots while that is going on."

Johnson realizes that improving, growing and providing more capability in terms of thrust, cooling or electrical power for the engine and its customers is also a part of the future.

Pratt & Whitney chose to bring their engines to AEDC because of their long-standing work history.

AEDC offers some unique capabilities that are not found anywhere else," Dunn said. "AEDC is a very important part of our program as a result of that. AEDC is state-of-the art for the size engines we have and our internal facility has out paced it self so AEDC is a great place to come for that."

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