Pratt & Whitney F117 engines recently surpassed their 10 millionth flight hour on the C-17 transport, announced the company. “This milestone is a testament to the reliability of the F117 engine,” said Beverly Deachin, the company’s vice president for military programs and customer support. “The exceptional performance of our engines—in some of the harshest conditions—has helped the C-17 Globemaster III save countless lives in military, humanitarian, and disaster relief missions,” she added in the company’s Feb. 21 release. Each C-17 carries four F117 turbofans. Constant upgrades to increase reliability and efficiency have increased the F117’s average “on-wing” time between overhauls to eight years, states the release. The F117 first entered service in 1993. So far, there are some 250 C-17s in worldwide service, including 218 in the Air Force’s fleet. P&W said it has delivered more than 1,100 F117 engines thus far.
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.