14yellow14 escribió:La propuesta de P&W para actualizar el F135:
Pratt Pushes Alternative to New Adaptive Engine for F-35
https://www.airforcemag.com/pratt-pushe ... -for-f-35/Jennifer Latka, Pratt & Whitney’s vice president for the F135 engine program, said the AETP technology would work only in Air Force F-35A and Navy F-35C models and could not fit in the Marine Corps’ F-35B. Developing two different alternative engines to the F135—AETP for the Air Force and Navy and another for the Marines—could add up to $40 billion over the 50-year life of the program, she said in an interview with Air Force Magazine.
The House version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act would require the F-35 Joint Program Office to pursue a strategy to incorporate an AETP engine into the F-35 fleet beginning in 2027. Congressional sources said one of the goals is to drive down the cost of F-35 engines by creating a competitor to Pratt & Whitney. GE, which is hot on the AETP technology, is eager to offer its XA100 as an alternative. Pratt, owned by Raytheon Technologies, has also developed an AETP engine, the XA101....
Pratt & Whitney submitted a pair of proposals for modernizing the F135 engine to the JPO in March. The plans would improve thrust and range by more than 10 percent each and give the F-35B a 5 percent boost in vertical lift and a 50 percent improvement in thermal management, the company said. Heat damage has been a concern with these engines, and less heat could also potentially improve stealth performance.
There would be little industrial impact, as the Enhanced Engine Package, or EEP, could “drop into production as a retrofit … So it relies on the exact same infrastructure, and the same sustainment network, that we currently … rely on.”
Pratt & Whitney is investing millions, meanwhile, to try to drive down sustainment costs for its engine, which is the major contributor to the F-35’s high operating costs. “We get it,” she said. “Affordability is the existential threat to this program.”
She continued: “We’ve taken 50 percent out of the unit cost” of the F135, she said. Improvements would reduce costs further, taking 36 percent out of the cost for the initial shop visit, she added. “That’s where the big bills come,” she added, because parts of the hot section hardware have reached end of life. “We know how to take cost out … Our whole commercial profile is ‘power by the hour,’” Latka noted.
Absent such improvements, the services will need to run the engines hotter to make use of Block 4 capabilities, and while they can handle it, “that means … the engines come in for maintenance” more frequently, increasing sustainment costs.
Latka said Pratt & Whitney’s proposed improvements have nothing to do with achieving the Air Force’s goal of cutting operating costs to $25,000 per hour by 2025. The upgrades are also not specifically intended to create more electrical power for onboard systems, she said.
Latka did not comment on the suitability of Pratt & Whitney’s XA101 for the F-35, except that the engine was “always intended … to be a sixth-generation” powerplant for sixth-generation fighters. The F-35 is a fifth-generation fighter. Pratt & Whitney has been testing the XA101 since the spring; GE began testing its XA100 in August.
“There’s a significant amount of risk that comes with brand-new technology, and that would require a … tremendous amount of validation to be done,” Latka said. “We’re saying, the AETP is not the right fit for the F-35.”
Esta propuesta tiene toda la pinta que es la que estaba antes y han actualizado, de hecho la podían haber implementado en el Block 4 si así lo solicitasen los clientes.
https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... e-upgrades
Growth Option 1.0
-5% consumo combustible +10% empuje
Growth Option 2.0
-10% consumo combustible +15% empuje
Lo que ofrecen ahora sería la GO 1.0 solo que mejorado el consumo de combustible. La GO 2.0, creo que ya incorporaría mejoras sobre los estudios llevados a cabo en el nuevo propulsor de ciclo adaptativo.
Yo creo que al final, GE va entrar y suministrar su propulsor en el siguiente lustro, y así tener 2 alternativas, que compitan en precio y prestaciones.
