Pratt & Whitney this week confirmed it is stepping up development work for its XA103 engine intended for the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program. The RTX group subsidiary announced on September 23 that its engineering team has accelerated the readiness of digital data packages for the program seven months after completing the design review for the engine, which could be in contention to power the Pentagon’s planned F-47 fighter.
According to Pratt & Whitney, establishing the digital requirements for its suppliers and distributing advanced digital design models, will allow the engine market to reduce the development timeline, as well as program costs. GE Aerospace is developing the XA201 engine as a rival NGAP option for new military aircraft.
“We’re paving the way with digital on NGAP so much so that the rate at which we are delivering XA103 technical data packages has doubled,” said Jill Albertelli, president of Pratt & Whitney’s Military Engines business. “Model-based design ties all the puzzle pieces together, fostering constant collaboration, and we are applying these learnings across our engine portfolio.”
Pratt & Whitney is aiming to be ready to test the XA103 engine by the end of this decade. The company said the next major milestone for the NGAP program is completing the Assembly Readiness Review, which is intended to validate the timeline for building and testing a prototype.