Le futur réacteur du NGAD (P&W XA-103 ou GE XA-102) sera plus petit que les XA-100 et 101 précédemment envisagés pour remotoriser le F-35. Il devrait commencer à être testé en en vol en 2028, pour un premier vol sur NGAD en 2030.
Article ASF, avec le titre : Air Force Wants $1.3 Billion to Finish Design for New Fighter Engine
https://www.airandspaceforces.com/air-f ... e=sailthru
The Air Force has requested $1.3 billion over the next three years to compete development of a new engine to power the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, which will succeed the F-22. The effort, already well underway, picks up where the Adaptive Engine Transition Program left off, and may yield a new powerplant ready for production in the 2028 time period.
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According to budget documents for the “Advanced Engine Development” program element, the Next-Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program will “design and perform risk reduction” for adaptive engine prototypes applicable to NGAD, the secretive fighter set to enter flight test around 2028.
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The Air Force said the NGAP effort “consists of six phases: initial design, preliminary design, adaptive prototyping planning, detailed design, engine fabrication, and engine assessments.” Initial and preliminary design activities are already complete, indicating that prototypes are now being sketched out. The Air Force has said that it needs the NGAD to be ready for operational service around 2030, which means its engine, the NGAP, will have to be ready for flight testing at least two years prior. The plan for fiscal 2025 is to “complete NGAP detailed design activities and transition to prototype engine fabrication and assembly activities,” according to budget docs.(...)
The AETP—in the form of GE Aerospace’s XA100 and Pratt & Whitney’s XA101—was designed to fit in the F-35 and would have given that fighter impressive gains in thrust, acceleration, and range. But the Pentagon and the international F-35 partners opted against pursuing it because it could only be applied to the F-35B and C variants with extensive further engineering. Buying the engine only for the Air Force and other countries using the F-35A model would have required creating separate parts, logistics, and maintenance systems, raising costs. (...)
Although little is known about the NGAD, Kendall and John Sneden, head of the Life Cycle Management directorate for propulsion, have said the NGAD engine will be smaller than the AETP engines developed by GE and Pratt, arresting a steady growth in engine fan diameter since the 1970s. But it also means the AETP cannot simply be tweaked to power the NGAD. Instead, a wholly new design is required.
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In February, Pratt said it had completed the critical design review on its NGAP engine, which it said bears the designation XA103. GE Aerospace’s engine is the XA102.
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The NGAD is expected to be a very expensive platform. Kendall has said the aircraft will cost “in the multiple hundreds of millions” of dollars each.