F-22 Engine Passes 100K Hours

Pratt & Whitney announced April 27 that its F119 engine, the power behind the only fielded fifth-generation fighter—the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor—has surpassed 100,000 operational flight hours of service. “With more than 100,000 operational flight hours, the F119 engine is truly a proven and mature fifth-generation engine,” said Tyler Evans, P&W’s F119 program director. Evans noted that the “flight experience we have on the F119 will deliver built-in maturity for the F135 engine, the lead propulsion system on the F-35 Lightning II,” Lockheed’s stealthy strike fighter. P&W currently produces the only F-35 engine, but Congress has repeatedly pressed the Pentagon to continue with an alternative engine, the F136 being developed by General Electric.