Air Force Secretary visits Arnold for first Fischer-Tropsch-powered high performance engine test

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne visited Arnold Engineering Development Center, Arnold Air Force Base, Tenn., today to view the first ground testing of the General Electric (GE) F101 engine using a 50-50 mix of Fischer- Tropsch (F-T) and JP-8 jet fuels.

The F101 testing, being conducted at AEDC's J-1 altitude jet engine test cell, will be the first series to qualify a high performance, afterburning engine with F-T fuel for a combat aircraft.

Secretary Wynne said the Air Force's synthetic fuel initiative has already reached some significant milestones this year, including successful flight certification of the B-52 bomber, with technical support from Arnold, and successful qualification ground testing of the engine that powers both the C-17 and the Boeing 757.

The ground testing of the B-1 engine is the next step toward certifying the second bomber aircraft.

"This test that we're going to do today, on a two-stage engine, the F101, is the first reach into the supersonic," he said. "Once we do the qualification on the ground, then we'll mount that engine back into an airplane and we'll fly the B-1 on a supersonic flight (using synthetic fuel)."

Secretary Wynne, who is at Arnold to learn more about the F-T engine ground test and certification process, said alternative fuel is not currently being commercially produced on a large scale in the United States. He hopes the current testing will help to change that.

"We know that we're being watched by all of our colleagues throughout the aviation industry," he said. "We hope the fuel becomes a free-market commodity. If that happens, then we will have done what we set out to do, reduce our dependency on foreign oil and increase our choices for fuel."

He said synthetic fuel production has been done successfully before in Germany, Japan and South Africa, but the Air Force wants to go beyond what has been achieved in the past.

"We would like to qualify our engines, not to a particular synthetic fuel, but instead to an improved process and to achieve a chemical standard," he said. "We are now well aware of our contribution to carbon. We also well know that as part of the manufacturing process, we will have to reduce our carbon footprint and be a little kinder to the environment."