Pratt & Whitney has begun producing and procuring parts for its XA103 adaptive engine demonstrator, marking a transition from an entirely digital development phase to physical hardware for the US Air Force’s Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program.
The RTX subsidiary recently completed a fully digital assembly readiness review for the XA103. This milestone closes the main design review sequence and authorizes the start of component supply and manufacturing for a ground demonstrator planned for testing in the late 2020s.
The XA103 is a three-stream adaptive-cycle turbofan designed to vary its bypass ratio and airflow distribution in flight. The architecture enables optimization for thrust, specific fuel consumption, thermal management and electrical power generation, depending on the mission profile. The engine is being developed as Pratt & Whitney’s candidate to power the US Air Force’s future sixth-generation fighters under the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) family of systems.
Observers estimate the XA103’s thrust class at roughly 35,000 to 40,000 pounds with afterburner. The program relies on a fully model-based, digital approach to design and industrialization, involving several hundred suppliers being integrated into a common 3D data and manufacturing environment as the project moves into the construction phase of the ground demonstrator.