General Electric F136

The General Electric F136 is a twin-spool, augmented turbofan jet engine which is being developed by General Electric and Rolls-Royce specifically for the F-35 Lightning II. On July 21, 2004, the F136 began full engine runs at GE's Evendale, Ohio facility. The engine ran for over an hour during two separate runs. In August 2005, the United States Department of Defense awarded the GE and Rolls-Royce team a $2.4 billion contract to develop its F136 engine. The contract was for the system development and demonstration phase of the F136 initiative, scheduled to run until September 2013.

The General Electric and Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team successfully completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) for the F136 on February 13, 2008. The F136 successfully completed a high-altitude afterburner testing program at the US Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee on March 20, 2008, including common exhaust hardware for the F-35 Lightning II aircraft. All test objectives were reached as planned using an engine configured with Conventional Takeoff and Landing (CTOL) and Short Takeoff Vertical Landing (STOVL) common exhaust systems. The engine configuration included a production-size fan and functional augmentor allowing several run periods to full afterburner operation.

The GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team successfully completed Short Take Off, Vertical Landing (STOVL) testing on an F136 engine at the GE testing facility at Peebles, Ohio on July 16, 2008. The first complete new-build F136 engine began testing January 30, 2009, under the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) contract with the US Government Joint Program Office for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.

Specifications of the General Electric F136

Type: Twin-Spool, Augmented Turbofan Length: 221 in (5.6 m) Diameter: 48 in (1.2 m)
Dry weight: classified
Maximum thrust: 40,000 lbf; 25,000 lbf without afterburner

Components

Compressor: Twin Spool/Counter Rotating/Axial Flow/Low Aspect Ratio Combustors: Annular Combustor Turbine: Axial Flow/Counter-Rotating

General Electric/Rolls Royce F136 Engine (video)