PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. – Pratt & Whitney, a division of United Technologies Corp. [UTX], is pitching engine upgrades to prolong the life of the U.S. Air Force’s aging B-52 bomber and improve the performance of the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, company officials said May 31.
For the B-52’s TF-33 engines, which Pratt & Whitney built over half a century ago, the company looked at new engines, including derivatives of business jet and regional aircraft engines, but it concluded that an upgrade would provide the lowest cost and risk, said Matthew Bromberg, president of Pratt & Whitney Military Engines. The company’s proposed “engine enhancement package” is expected to reduce fuel consumption by about 10 percent and increase reliability.
Photo: U.S. Air Force.
“We actually think the best option for the U.S. government is to upgrade the TF-33,” Bromberg told reporters May 31 at a media event near the company’s West Palm Beach engine facility. An upgrade would cost a “fraction” of the pricetag of a new engine and would not require potentially complex changes to the avionics, fuel delivery system and pylons that a re-engining would entail.
Lt. Gen. Arnold Bunch, military deputy for the Air Force acquisition office, said May 25 that the Air Force’s FY 2018 budget request includes money to study the future of the B-52 engines. An Air Force spokesman later said that the service is assessing “all options” for the engines.
For the F-35’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, the company is offering “Growth Option 1.0,” a set of upgrades that would provide a 5 to 6 percent fuel burn reduction and a 6 to 10 percent thrust increase. Pratt & Whitney said that recent testing at its Florida facility verified those potential benefits.
While the F135 is meeting its current key performance metrics, a propulsion upgrade would support future F-35 upgrades. “There’s always a desire for more thrust and better fuel burn,” Bromberg said at the media event, for which Pratt & Whitney paid for press travel.
Pratt & Whitney said the F135 upgrades could be ready by 2020 and would be easily inserted into the engine production line or in engines undergoing routine overhauls. A spokeswoman for the Defense Department’s F-35 joint program office confirmed that government officials are considering the proposal.
The company is also exploring a “Growth Option 2.0,” the contents of which would depend on what the military wants to see in four to eight years. Pratt & Whitney has been developing F135 enhancements through the Navy-sponsored F135 Fuel Burn Reduction program and the Air Force-sponsored Component and Engine Structural Assessment Research program.
Pratt & Whitney is also ramping up its two F135 production lines in Connecticut and Florida to support the F-35 program’s planned procurement growth, Bromberg said. The company, which delivered 42 F135s in 2015 and 72 engines in 2016, plans to deliver about 80 engines this year and about 110 next year.