The Air Force Research Laboratory selected GE Aviation and Pratt & Whitney to develop separately a newfangled jet engine that would allow fighters and bombers to conserve far more fuel while at cruising speed.
GE Aviation is owned by Fairfield-based General Electric Co. and has its main facility in Ohio. Pratt & Whitney is based in East Hartford and is a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp. in Hartford.
With today’s fighter jet engines designed primarily for thrust and commercial jetliner engines for efficiency, the Air Force hopes to have an adaptive, hybrid engine that could cut fuel consumption as much as 25 percent for fighters and bombers while cruising, while still revving up to combat speeds those aircraft achieve today. The engine would feature air ducting systems to control how much air flows through the core of the engine, impacting thrust and efficiency.
The Air Force hopes to have an adaptive engine in service by 2020.
