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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 0035.PDF
FLIGHT International, 7 January 1978 43 scheduled for progressive transfer to F101 manufacture towards the end of last year. GE's $79-9 million contract for tooling and 12 more engines for the first three produc tion B-ls was stopped, but some R&D1 work has continued and one prototype continues to fly. Termination of the F101 programme also affected GE's participation in the new CFM56 turbofan, which embodies the F101 core engine. With an originally planned force of 244 operational B-ls, GE stood to earn $7-5 million; per aircraft set of FlOls, representing an eventual total revenue of some $1,375 million'. Some of this loss of potential future military sales may be recouped if the Boeing B^52G and H, now proposed to carry the AGM-86 Air-Launched Cruise' Missile, are retrofitted with non-augmented F103 turbofans. Pos sible further applications for the F101 include the stretched cruise missile-carrying General Dynamics FB-111, which would be designated FB-111H. Late last year the company also started testing a modified F101 for possible retrofit to the Grumman F-14 Tomcat. This version of the turbofan, the F101-X, is rated at 29,0001b and utilises the F101 core, a scaled-up F404 fan, and a modified F404 afterburner and nozzle. By April last year two FlOl-Xs had been tested and full rated thrust had been achieved. F101-GE-100 Two-stage fan, nine-stage h-p compressor, annular combustor, single-stage h-p turbine, two-stage 1-p turbine, fully modulated afterburner with variable-area primary and secondary nozzles. Take-off 17,0001b dry, rising with reheat to approximately 30,0001b; bypass ratio about 2:1, pressure ratio 27:1, mass flow approximately 3501b/sec, length 181in, diameter 55in, weight approximately 4,0001b. F103 (CF6-50) Two-shaft turbofan. This is the military counterpart of the commercial CF6-50, see above. G£ F404 augmented fan for the F-18 fighter F404 Two-shaft augmented turbofan. With the loss of the F101 and the gradual phasing-out of the J79, GE will be increasingly reliant on the F404 (along with the T700) as the mainstay of its military engine business. It is under US Navy-funded development for the McDonnell Douglas/ Northrop F-18 Hornet carrier-borne strike fighter. Because of economies in US defence expenditure, F-18 production will probably force a cut in Grumman F-14 Tomcat out put. The F404 is a derivative of the J101 continuous- bleed turbojet, modified to incorporate a slightly larger three-stage fan which raises the bypass ratio from 0-2:1 on the J101 to 0-34:1 on the F404. This low bypass ratio maintains dry thrust at high speeds and avoids an exces sively high s.f.c. in afterburning. The F404 first ran in January last year, one month ahead of schedule. Since then four more engines have run, and the programme has been pushed hard by GE. Within the first 50hr of testing the F404 had met all specified sea-level thrust, s.f.c. and acceleration requirements. After only three months of testing 500hr had been run, twice the planned amount. By August 1977, l,000hr had been completed and altitude- chamber testing had been started. A total of 50 F404s are to be built for the engineering programme, 16 for bench development and 34 for F-18 flight test. The preliminary Flight Rating Test (PFRT) is imminent, preparatory to first flight of the F-18 this autumn, and production quali fication is aimed at early 1979. Production deliveries should start in January 1980. GE foresees a requirement for around 1,900 F404s between 1979 and 1984 to support an estimated US Navy force of 800 F-18s. Other potential applications for the engine include V/Stol fighters, light attack aircraft (such as the Saab B3LA project) and advanced low-cost fighters. The F-18 is intended to replace the Vought A-7 and three versions of the McDonnell Douglas F-4. As a counter proposal for avoiding the cost of developing and producing the F-18, Vought has sug gested a retrofit programme for the A-7 (currently TF30 and TF41-powered) with two non-afterburning F404s. F404-GE-400 Three-stage combined fan and 1-p compress sor, seven-stage h-p compressor, annular combustor, single- stage h-p and 1-p turbines, close-coupled afterburner and variable nozzle. Take-off approximately 16,0001b with after burning, bypass ratio 0-34:1, pressure ratio approximately 25:1, mass flow 1401b/sec, length 158in, maximum diameter 34-8in, weight approximately 2,0001b. J79 Single-shaft turbojet with afterburner. The J79 remains the most important US Mach 2 turbojet, with extensive application in the Lockheed F-104 and McDonnell Douglas F-4. Manufacture has been licensed to Motoren- und Turbinen-Union, Fiat, Fabrique Nationale, Orenda and Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries. It has been in production at GE since 1956 and, together with units manu factured by licensees, more than 16,500 J79s have been built. Production is now starting to taper off but continues at a modest level for the F-4. A product-improvement pro gramme soon to begin concerns a low-smoke, long-life update of the J79-GE-10 (as the -10A) for some 260 of the US Navy's F-4Js. Total running time on the J79 exceeds 23 • 5 million hours. Applications and projects: Israel Aircraft Industries Barak and Kfir (1 X 17,0001b A/B J79-GE-17); Lockheed F-104C and D (1 X 15,8001b A/B J79-GE-7A); Lockheed F-104G and J (1 X 15,8001b A/B J79-GE-11A); Heritalia F-104S (1 X 17,9001b A/B J79-GE-19); McDonnell Douglas F4A and -4B, and RF-4B (2 X 17,0001b A/B J79-GE-8); McDonnell Douglas F-4E and -4J (2 X 17,9001b A/B J79- GE-10 or -17); McDonnell Douglas F-4C and RF-4C (2 X 17,0001b A/B J79-GE-15); Rockwell International RA-5C (2 X 17,9001b A/B J79-GE-10). J79-GE-17 Seventeen-stage compressor, annular combus tor, three-stage turbine, closercoupled afterburner with variable-area convergent-divergent nozzle. Take-off 11,8701b basic, rising with reheat to 17,90Olb; pressure ratio 13-5:1, mass flow 1701b/sec, length 208-7in, diameter 39-lin, weight 3,8361b. J85 (CJ610) Single-shaft turbojet with afterburner. The J85 is used extensively in light fighter/trainer aircraft, with production having also been licensed to Alfa Romeo and Orenda. The latest version is the J85-GE-21A powering the Northrop F-5E and F-5F Tiger n, currently being built at the rate of around 14 aircraft/month. With the 3,000th aircraft in the F-5/T-38 fighter/trainer programme delivered a year ago, Northrop envisages production of advanced versions of the series until 1987. Approximately 1,000 F-5E/Fs have been ordered, of which just over a half have been delivered. Two new and novel applications of the J85 are the 0-44:1 scale-model of the Rockwell Inter- national/Nasa Highly Manoeuvrable Aircraft Technology (Himat) aircraft, and the Lockheed Stealth Fighter demon strator. The first of two Himat models is to make its initial flight next month, air-launched from a B-52; and the Stealth Fighter was scheduled to have flown towards the end of last year. By mid-1977 11,600 J85s had been built, and total running time was 21-9 million hours, statistics which make the engine significantly the most successful in its thrust bracket. Applications and projects: Aeritalia G.91Y (2 X 4,0801b A/B J85-GE-13D); Canadair CL-41G (2 X 2,9501b J85-J4); Cessna A-37A (2 X 2,8501b J85-GE-17A); Lockheed Stealth Fighter demonstrator (2 X J85); McDonnell Douglas ADM-20C Quail (1 X J85-GE-7); Northrop T-38A (2 X 3,8501b A/B J85-GE-5J); Northrop F-5A and -5B (2 X 4,0801b A/B J85-GE-13D); Northrop F-5E Tiger II (2 X
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