Duct/Flame-holder Redesign Key for USAF F110 Engines

F110-GE-129 testing(click to view full) The USA’s F-16 fleet is an aging fleet that is exceeding its “design life” of 8,000 Total Accumulated Cycles by an average 485 TACs. While most of the original F-16s were fitted with the Same Pratt & Whitney F100 engine that’s in the F-15 Eagle fleet, many of the F-16C/Ds were fitted with GE’s more powerful F110 instead. Now General Electric Aircraft Engines of Cincinnati, OH has received a firm-fixed price contract modification for $15.6 million, to buy redesigned mixing ducts and 2 flame-holder segments. This is a sole source, 4 plus-year requirements type contract, with a basic period of 15 months and 3 one-year options. In combination with the F110 Services Life Extension Program (see $61.2M FY07 contract | $69.7M FY08 contract), this contract is designed to help extend the life of the F110-GE-100/129 engines to 2025. 748 CBSG/PKP at Tinker Air Force Base, OK issued the contract (FA8104-05-D-0042-P00006). The redesigned hardware is meant to address the fact that… “…augmenter/exhaust nozzle section is a leading contributor to labor intensive unscheduled engine removals in direct relation to excessively repaired parts that are subject to thermal variances.” In English, the engines develop unexpected problems far too […]