Reuters reports that Pratt & Whitney “said on Monday it has been awarded a $5.2 billion contract to support production of the 15th and 16th lots of F135 engines, with an option to award a 17th lot, powering all three variants of the F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft.” P&W said that the “total contract value for lots 15-17, with exercised options, is about $8 billion and will fund over 418 F135 engines.” According to Reuters, the “contract funds production of 278 F135 engines with an option to order up to 518 engines. It also includes program management, engineering support, production support and tooling.”
Full Story (Reuters)
Tag: F-135
F-35 Engine Recommends F-135 Retrofit to Fix Vibration Issue
Aviation Week reported that the F-35 Joint Program Office “has issued a directive recommending that all Pratt & Whitney F135s powering the global fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35s be retrofitted within 90 days with a fix for a vibration problem that caused an aircraft to crash on Dec 15.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)
Pratt & Whitney Cleared to Resume F-135 Engine Deliveries
Reuters reported that Raytheon Technologies Corp. said Friday that the US government has “cleared its Pratt and Whitney unit to resume deliveries of its F-135 engine for the F-35 fighter jet, after a halt was put in place in December following the discovery of a safety concern.” In a statement, the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said that its “engineers worked alongside Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin to develop ‘mitigations for a rare system phenomenon involving harmonic resonance to develop a path forward for safe operation of the F135 in flight.’” The JPO added that the “actions the government and industry team are taking will ensure incorporation of mitigation measures that will fully address/resolve this rare phenomenon in impacted F135 engines.” The JPO also said that the “government was working on drawing up instructions for safely resuming flight operations for impacted and new production aircraft.”
Full Story (Reuters)