Page 6 - Aerotech News and Review, September 4, 2020

NASA takes delivery of GE jet engine for X-59

Mark the big one-of-a-kind engine, measure community response.” Some assembly required
designed and built just for NASA, as Although not considered a big deal,
delivered. Procuring the power another difference between the X-59
Nearly 13 feet long, three feet in di- As preliminary designs for the X-59 engine and the Gripen jet engine it was
ameter, and packing 22,000 pounds of were put together several years ago, originated from is the installation meth-
afterburner-enhanced jet propulsion, the the initial plan was to power the air- od. But that doesn’t mean the process
F414-GE-100 engine is now at NASA’s craft with the same jet engines used by will be any easier.
Armstrong Flight Research Center at NASA’s F/A-18 research jets based at “There is still a significant chunk
Edwards Air Force Base in California. Armstrong. of effort that lays in taking something
There, it will be checked out and “We had an inventory of spare en- that’s well known and installing it into
inspected before it is transported to gines and parts and thought we could a new aircraft,” Hazlett said. “So, we’ll
nearby Palmdale for eventual installa- use the engines we already owned, but have a team from GE present to help
tion into NASA’s X-59 Quiet Super- that didn’t pan out,” Castner said. Lockheed Martin with the process.”
sonic Technology airplane, which is The problem was the engine — What’s the difference?
now under construction at Lockheed GE’s model F404 — couldn’t gener- Versions of both the F404 and F414
Martin’s Skunk Works factory in Palm- ate enough thrust to achieve the flight engines have included track hardware
dale, Calif. performance goals for the X-59. As to assist in installing the powerplant.
“Taking delivery of the engine from designed, it took two of the engines to Either the engine is put on a cart and
General Electric marks another excit- power the F/A-18, but the X-59 only placed at the back of the aircraft to roll
ing, huge milestone for us in building had room for a single engine. it right in, or it’s placed underneath the NASA photograph by Ken Ulbrich
the X-59,” said Raymond Castner, the Working with GE, the solution was airplane and a lift is used to raise the The F414-GE-100 engine, which will power NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic
propulsion lead for the X-59 at NASA’s found in adapting the F404’s next-gen- engine into place – in both cases using Technology X-plane (QueSST) in flight, is unboxed at NASA’s Armstrong Flight
Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. eration improvement, the F414 engine, the track hardware as a guide. Research Center at Edwards, Calif. The engine, one of two delivered by GE,
is approximately 13 feet long, and will power the X-59 on missions to gather
In fact, two engines were delivered: into a configuration that would both But to save weight and space, the information about how the public perceives the sounds of quieter supersonic
one to serve as the primary engine and satisfy the X-59’s power needs and X-59’s version of the F414 does not flight.
the other to be used as a backup when physical size. have the tracks, so the engine — which
needed. Anthony Hazlett, GE’s X-59 demo will be placed underneath the aircraft As part of that manufacturing pro- design team to prove our assumptions
“This just adds even more anticipa- model engineer at the Lynn facility, and lifted — will rely on human eye- cess, the engine already has undergone and boundary conditions are still good,
tion as we look forward to seeing that was responsible for leading the group balls and hands to manually guide it more than eight hours of successful and we’ve met that challenge in every
big flame come out the back of the air- that came up with the unique engine into place. operations on a test stand in Massa- way,” Hazlett said.
craft as it takes off for the first time,” design for the experimental supersonic Once mechanically bolted in place, chusetts to prove it would be capable With plenty of work to do on other
Castner said. airplane. electrical, fuel, and various other lines of supporting the way the X-59 is ex- programs, many in support of the U.S.
Assembled and initially tested at GE “We had developed a single-engine will be hooked up and the whole en- pected to fly. military — and notwithstanding the ad-
gine/aircraft combination system tested. A typical fighter mission will see ditional challenges imposed by the CO-
That will lead to the first time the en- the pilot move the engine throttle a VID-19 pandemic — GE had no prob-
gine is fired up within the aircraft as it number of times, with short bursts of lem keeping an appropriate focus on the
remains in place with brakes on and high power between periods of average NASA work to achieve that goal.
restraining tethers fastened. thrust. This affects the engine’s over- The opportunity to work on a NASA
“This whole process will take several all durability and design lifetime of its X-plane — the first of its kind in three
months to perform, as various tests are parts in a way that is fully understood. decades — was a big reason.
scheduled within certain windows that “With the X-59 we looked at how it “X-59 has a mission unparalleled in
are available to us as assembly on the will be flying, which is different from a terms of its cool factor. There’s been no
airplane continues,” Castner said. fighter. It will have longer duration mis-
sions at high altitude with high power – shortage of folks who want to help and
Factory fresh often with the afterburner firing to reach work on this program. It’s something
Although the engine is based on the supersonic speeds,” Hazlett said. that GE is extremely proud to be a part
design of the Gripen’s engine — known Putting the X-59’s engine through its of,” Hazlett said.
as the F414-GE-39E — GE did not just paces at a GE test cell in Lynn showed From NASA’s perspective, Castner
take a 39E engine in stock and modify it it could handle the high afterburner us- concurs.
for NASA to use on the X-59. age and demonstrated all other design “Working with GE to make this en-
“This is a whole brand-new engine upgrades, such as the newly designed gine available has been fantastic. They
birthed from raw metal,” Hazlett said. control software, would work as ex- have been an invaluable partner in all
“The NASA team is getting a new en- pected. of this. We are very fortunate to have
gine straight from the dealership floor.” “It’s been a great challenge for our them as part of the team.”
GE Aviation photograph
The F414-GE-100 engine sits in the assembly area at GE Aviation’s Riverworks
facility in Lynn, Massachusetts as it prepares for initial checkout tests. The
engine will power NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane
(QueSST) in flight, aiding in NASA’s Low-Boom Flight Demonstration mission
to demonstrate the ability to reduce the loud sonic boom associated with
supersonic flight to no more than a gentle thump. This technology may open
the door to future supersonic flight over land on a commercial level.

Aviation’s Riverworks facility in Lynn, version of the F414 for Sweden’s Saab
Mass., the engine will power the X-59 JAS 39E Gripen fighter that we deter-
on missions to gather information about mined would work for the X-59 with
how the public will react to the quieter some modifications, so we derived a
sonic booms the aircraft is designed to new engine model, the F414-GE-100,”
produce — if they hear anything at all. Hazlett said.
Data collected will be shared with “The tried and true guts of the en-
federal and international regulators to gine, all the turbomachinery, are the
help them set new rules that may allow same or very similar. But the engine’s
supersonic flight over land and enable external design and the way the engine
a whole new market for commercial operates was upgraded.”
faster-than-sound air travel. That included something as compli- Lockheed Martin photograph
“It’s important to note that neither cated as writing new control systems NASA’s X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology X-plane, or QueSST, will fly over communities in the United States to
the X-59, nor this particular engine, software so the engine and X-59 could demonstrate quiet supersonic. X-59 is designed so that, when flying faster than the speed of sound, people on the ground
are prototypes for a future commercial talk to each other, and something as will hear nothing more than a quiet sonic thump — rather than a loud sonic boom. Scientifically valid data gathered from
supersonic airliner,” Castner said. “This relatively simple as adding plumbing these community overflights will be presented to U.S. and international regulators, who will use the information to help
them come up with rules based on noise levels that may enable new commercial markets for supersonic flight over land.
hardware is just for proving the airplane in new places so fuel could flow from
can produce quiet sonic thumps and the airplane to the engine.
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