US Air Force Selects Rolls-Royce for Adaptive Aircraft Engine Project
17 August 2007
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| ADVENT is one element in a much larger effort to reduce the rapidly rising fuel intensity of war. Shown is a plot of daily fuel consumption per soldier for different conflicts. Click to enlarge. Source: Defense Science Board Task Force on DOD Energy Strategy |
The US Air Force has selected Rolls-Royce as one of two vendors to develop technology for the US Air Force’s ADVENT (Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology) program, designed to produce a next-generation engine for military aircraft. The Group’s LibertyWorks research unit at Indianapolis, US will carry out the work. The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) announced the agreement, which is valued at up to $296 million over two phases of the program.
Earlier this year, AFRL’s Propulsion Directorate issued a Broad Agency Announcement calling for industry to develop the ADVENT engine. The program’s goals are to develop inlet, engine and exhaust technologies that optimize propulsion system performance over a broad range of altitude and speed that will enable pilots to switch effortlessly from high speed combat maneuvers to long-range persistence mode. In other words, the engine will offer both a high-thrust capability and a separate loiter operation with reduced fuel consumption.
We are extremely pleased to be working with the Air Force Research Laboratory in developing a new generation of propulsion technology. It’s an exciting time in aviation history. Working together with the AFRL, we will deliver some lasting changes that will dramatically reduce fuel consumption.
—Phil Burkholder, Chief Operating Officer for LibertyWorks
The demonstration program is selecting two competitive contractor teams in August during a concept exploration phase, according to Matthew Meininger, the ADVENT program manager. The remainder of Phase I will include critical component testing and engine preliminary design.
The Air Force will then select a single contractor in late 2009 to carry out the Phase 2 effort. This phase covers work from engine-detailed design through Technology Readiness Level 6, which signifies it is ready for a full-up, operational test in a relevant engine environment. Meininger said engine demonstrator testing would occur in 2012.
The transformational engine is needed to combine speed, maneuverability, range and persistence. Essentially, it will transcend today’s fixed engines, which are constrained to provide either fuel efficiency or high performance, said Jeff Stricker, the chief engineer of the propulsion directorate’s turbine engine division.
Modern turbine engines are designed to operate optimally at a single flight condition, and are compromised at other mission points, Mr. Stricker said. Currently pilots must use the throttle to match thrust when conditions are not optimal. This results in diminished fuel efficiency and performance.
ADVENT is a multi-design point engine that incorporates the best characteristics of high performance and fuel efficient jet engines into a single adaptable engine.
—Jeff Stricker
The new engine design will use adaptive fans and cores to generate high thrust when needed, and optimize fuel efficiency when cruising or loitering.
Project ADVENT is an effort under the Versatile, Affordable Advanced Turbine Engines Program, or VAATE. Managed by the Propulsion Directorate, VAATE is a national program aimed at advancing the state of the art in turbine engine technology, to result in dramatically improved fuel efficiency and aircraft performance across the entire mission profile.
VAATE is part of a larger DOD focus on reducing petroleum consumption. In a report from the Defense Science Board Task Force in June 2007, Chris DiPetto, Task Force Co-Executive Secretary, noted that the military’s fuel consumption is moving in the wrong direction. The daily consumption of petroleum per deployed combatant has risen from 1.67 gal in WWII to 27.3 gal in the Iraq war (Gulf II). “Technological advances, future directed energy weapons, and unmanned vehicles are driving fuel consumption almost exponentially.”
Aviation accounts for more than 70% of DoD fuel consumption. On the land side, about 70% of the logistics tonnage shipped is fuel.
LibertyWorks was previously known as Allison Advanced Development Co. (AADC). The name LibertyWorks was derived from the company history with the AE 1107C-Liberty engine that powers the V-22 Osprey, as well as the name of the first aero engine built at the facility.
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