Lightning engine powers future workload

Published Nov. 26, 2008
By Brandice J. Armstrong
Tinker Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla., -- A new workload is on the horizon. In 2012, Tinker will perform maintenance on the Pratt & Whitney F135 afterburning turbofan engine.

Ideally, the workload will secure the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center's unofficial reputation as "Engine Country" and help protect its future.

"This is good news," said David Buchanan, program analyst for the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center Plans and Programs Directorate. "We're basically the site for engines for the Air Force. We're the CITE, center of industrial and technical excellence, [and] this will help to offset some of our shrinking engine workload."

The engine powers the not-yet-released Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II military strike fighter. The aircraft is scheduled to debut in 2011 and will benefit the Air Force, Navy, Marines, and the United Kingdom's royal air force and royal navy.

Ultimately, the F-35 is expected to replace the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, the McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II and the Boeing F/A-18 Hornet.

There are nearly 13 already built F-35 flight-test aircraft, and an additional 14 are limited-rate initial-production aircraft on order.

The depot-maintenance workload comes as a partnership with Pratt & Whitney and will be organized in manner similar to the joint venture Tinker has with Pratt & Whitney's F119 afterburning turbofan engine.

For the F119 partnership, the Connecticut-based company has leased space within the OC-ALC shop floor and provides engineering support and other functions for the F119. "Pratt & Whitney is eager to partner with us," Mr. Buchanan said. "Everybody involved with the project is happy to see the work come in."

While Tinker technicians will be trained to work on the new engine, Mr. Buchanan said the F135 is quite similar to the F119, which powers the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor. Within its design, the F135 incorporates the F119 core. It has a six-stage high-pressure compressor and a single-stage high-pressure turbine unit. Yet, unlike the F119, the F135 generates 40,000 pounds of thrust, the most for a fighter engine, according to an Internet encyclopedia. The F119 can produce 35,000 pounds of thrust.