ASTF marks 30 years since Initial Operational Capability

  • Published
  • By Raquel March
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, TENN. --  The 30th anniversary of the Aeropropulsion System Test Facility achieving initial operational capability was Sept. 30 with the conclusion of a Pratt & Whitney F100 engine test in the facility's C-1 test cell.

Upon conception of the large engine test facility in 1965, ASTF would provide propulsion testing for aircraft engines which were "becoming more complex, as illustrated by the J79 engine with variable compressor stators and exhaust nozzles, and the TF30 mixed-flow turbofan engine," wrote Dr. Jim Mitchell, then the AEDC Chief Scientist, in an 1984 article for the Complex's High Mach publication.

Mitchell also wrote about possible plans for ASTF interconnections with the Engine Test Facility on the air side and exhaust side.

"The facility is designed to accommodate these connections for two reasons," he said. "Some future tests in the ASTF, such as for a large freejet nozzle for engine inlet testing, will require the added ETF airflow capacity. But the airflow will also go in the other direction, with the ASTF machinery supplying the existing T and J test cells as a backup for the aging ETF machinery. This has been our pattern at AEDC since the beginning; that is, tie together the various test facilities to get greater and more efficient test capability at minimum cost."

Due to upgrades throughout the years, today ASTF provides conditioned altitude test air for the ETF J and T cells as well as the C cells. The sea level test cells also receive test air from ASTF. Air supply tie-ins were completed to those facilities in 2007 eliminating the use of 1939 German equipment in the ETF Air Supply B-plant.

A ribbon cutting ceremony in 2012 marked the completion of one of nine project upgrades through the Advanced Large Military Engine Capability program. This project upgrade added "critical test cell cooling capability to the large turbine engine altitude test cells during near sea level testing conditions," said Rosemary Matty, retired and the ALMEC program manager in 2012.

The C cells are 28 feet in diameter and approximately 45 feet in length. Each cell is capable of testing up to Mach 2.3 and simulating altitudes of up to 75,000 feet. The cells can provide engine inlet temperatures of up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and accommodate engines producing up to 100,000 pounds of thrust.

Since that initial test in 1985, ASTF has tested the Pratt & Whitney F119 engines for the F-22 and F135 engines for the F-35 aircraft. Commercial engine tests have consisted of turbofan engines such as the Rolls Royce Trent 900 and GE and Pratt & Whitney GP7200 for the Airbus A380, the Pratt & Whitney PW6000 for the Airbus A318, the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 for the Boeing 787, the XF7-10 for the Japanese Technical Research and Development Institute P-1 and Rolls Royce BR725 for the Gulfstream G650.

ASTF Build Highlights and Milestones

November 1972 - A contract was awarded to the architectural-engineering joint venture firm of Daniel, Mann, Johnson and Mendenhall /Norman Engineering Co. for the design of the Aeropropulsion Systems Test Facility.

April 1976 - The resource plan for construction of the ASTF was completed.

September 1976 - President Gerald R. Ford signed into law the military construction bill that included $437 million for construction of the ASTF.

March 1977 - The first design packages for the ASTF were delivered to the Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, by DMJM/Norman.

May 13, 1977 - Groundbreaking ceremonies were held at the construction site marking the official beginning of the construction project.

August 4, 1977 - Bids were opened for the construction package.

August 10, 1977 - The ASTF construction contract was awarded to a joint venture of Morrison-Knudsen Co. Inc., American Bridge Division of U.S. Steel, and Fischback and Moore, Inc.


September 1977 - Site preparation for the ASTF construction began.

Spring 1978 - Construction began.

March 1980 - A ringer crane, with a lifting capacity of 1.2 million pounds, lifted one of the largest single components of the test facility, a cooling equipment section weighing 920,000 pounds, into place.

May 1980 - The first of two ASTF test cells was put into place.

October 1980 - The world's largest butterfly valve was installed. The valve, listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, is 32 feet in diameter and weighs 170 tons.

November 1982 - Two electrical transformers were energized, marking the first major step to powering the facility.

November 1982 - The final piece of ducting was hoisted into place.

March 1984 - Installation and check of the Variable Frequency Starting System is completed approximately five months ahead of schedule by Sverdrup personnel.

April 1984 - One of the ASTF's 52,500-horsepower air supply compressors was started and accelerated to 3,600 revolutions per minute, a major step to achieving air-on capability.

September 1984 - AEDC received an operational F100 engine on loan from the Aeronautical Systems Division, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The engine was to be used to verify that ASTF can safely conduct testing.

September 1984 - The first phase of the Test Instrumentation System, the prime engine parameter system, was delivered to AEDC by Grumman Data Systems. The TIS will acquire, condition, process, record and display engine data from the facility's test cells.

October 2, 1984 - The ASTF was dedicated.

January 1985 - The first full-scale activation test was successfully conducted with an engine simulator in test cell C- 1.

April 1985 - An F100 turbofan engine was successfully run in C-1 for more than an hour at a simulated flight condition of 16,000 feet altitude and 0.8 Mach number.

June 1985 - The Automatic Test Control System, that will automatically control the setting of engine altitude test conditions in the ASTF, was delivered by Science Applications International Corporation.

July 1985 - The first F100 engine test using 50 of the 500 TIS data channels was successfully conducted.

September 1985 - The first test of the ATCS providing air supply leg stabilization was conducted with an engine simulator in test cell C-2.

September 26, 1985 - An F100 test using the TIS and ATCS was successfully conducted signaling the ASTF for Initial Operational Capability.

-AEDC-