Engine meets milestone

The GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team has held a successful Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the F136 engine being developed for the F-35 Lightning II aircraft.

According to Rolls-Royce, the review, a three-month process led by the F-35 Program Office and Lockheed Martin, is a key milestone in the F136’s System Development and Demonstration (SDD) phase. The SDD program was launched in August 2005 with a $2.4bn contract to the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team.

The PDR assesses the progress to the F136 design and its hardware, as well as the strategy to move the engine into a production phase later this decade. Other officials involved in the review included technology specialists from Wright Patterson Air Force Base, the US Air Force, the US Navy, and defence officials representing the F-35 program’s international participants.

‘Completing this review process gives us the green light to proceed with the activities leading to the next major milestone, the Critical Design Review, in late 2007. This includes a series of key engine tests,’ said Jean Lydon-Rodgers, president of the Fighter Engine Team. ‘Through engineering design optimisations and weight reduction projects leading up to the PDR, the Fighter Engine Team has been able to reduce the total engine weight by over 550 pounds.’