Paris, France - The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F136 engine team of GE and Rolls-Royce announced that they will further expand Turkish industrial participation in the F136 program. At the Paris Air Show on Tuesday, GE Transportation and Tusas Engine Industries (TEI) of Eskisehir, Turkey, signed an agreement wherein GE will provide advanced engineering training to TEI.
The training will broaden TEI's expertise in turbine engine design, culminating in its approval as a GE-qualified engineering source. This approval will enable them to provide engineering services to GE's Transportation, not only for the technologies employed in the F136, but on other GE military engines as well.
Commencing later this summer, six senior TEI engineers will travel to Cincinnati, Ohio for five months of classroom and "hands-on" instruction, followed by three months of training in Eskisehir with the full TEI engineering division.
The addition of engineering design complements TEI's existing participation on the GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team F136 program. TEI produces key rotating components for F136 development and test engines at their manufacturing facility in Eskisehir. The recently completed Phase III, pre-System Design and Demonstration (SDD) test program achieved all U.S. JSF Program Office milestones necessary to progress to a funded contract for full SDD award, anticipated in August of 2005.
GE's long-standing relationship with TEI began in 1985 with the establishment of a manufacturing, assembly, and test facility for production of F110 engines for the Turkish Air Force. Since then, TEI has broadened its capabilities and now produces over 450 different complex engine parts, most of them for GE military and commercial engines.
Editor's notes
GE Transportation - Aircraft Engines, with responsibility for 60 percent of the F136, is developing the compressor and coupled high-pressure/low-pressure turbine system components, controls and accessories, and the augmentor.
Rolls-Royce, with 40 percent of the program, is responsible for the front fan, combustor, stages 2 and 3 of the low-pressure turbine, and gearboxes. International participant countries also contribute to the F136 through involvement in engine development and component manufacturing.
Today's GE Rolls-Royce Fighter Engine Team can trace its technical roots back to 1994, when GE and the then Allison Engine Company formed a teaming agreement to work on IHPTET - the U.S. Government's Integrated High Performance Turbine Engine Program. The FET has steadily proven its business and technology case to produce the F136 interchangeable engine for the F-35 in becoming an integral member of the JSF team.