BBQ Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 I was looking at this new fighter--and was confused that there are two "interchangeable" engines for all three variants of the Joint Strike Fighter. Are these two engines competing against each other to become the final engine that goes into production? Or are they two different engines for outfitting the aircraft for different situations? I just would have thought they would have already decided on the engine by now.
GGTharos Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 I haven't checked out the facts involving the JSF itself, but usually the USAF likes to have engines built by two different manufacturers at least for assurance reasons - ie. if one company goes belly up, the other one will continue manufacture, etc. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC] Reminder: SAM = Speed Bump :D I used to play flight sims like you, but then I took a slammer to the knee - Yoda
mvsgas Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 AFAIK there are several reason for two different engine companies. --First , like GG said, if one company goes down you have a back up. --Monopoly, if I understand correctly, the US government can not promote a monopoly of any kind and it does this by asking several companies to develop the same product (even the F-22 is made in part by Boeing) --Cost, by having different companies competing for a contract (specially, a contract as large as the F-35 one) you hope the cost of R&D might go down. --Also, some other countries prefer one company to another ( UK prefers the GE Rolls-Royce for obvious reasons) Two engine is not that bad, the F-16 has 7 different engines (block one through sixty) F-100-PW-100, F-100-PW-200, F-100-PW-220/220E, F-100-PW-229, F-110-GE-100, F-110-GE-129 and the F-110-GE-132. Some of them are even interchangeable, some airframes can get a different engine with minor changes To whom it may concern, I am an idiot, unfortunately for the world, I have a internet connection and a fondness for beer....apologies for that. Thank you for you patience. Many people don't want the truth, they want constant reassurance that whatever misconception/fallacies they believe in are true..
BBQ Posted July 30, 2008 Author Posted July 30, 2008 Apparently, the F135 and F136 are completely interchangable. So if I understand this right--there is no "competition" for which engine will go in the jet--they both will be available--some countries might want one engine over the other, etc.
tflash Posted July 30, 2008 Posted July 30, 2008 There is still some debate, since US administration and congress only want to fund F135, whereas UK wants F136 on the table, the more since Rolls-Royce has a stake in it. [sIGPIC][/sIGPIC]
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