F-22 Engine Completes Tests

Photo by Rick Goodfriend

Arnold Engineering Development Center at Arnold AFB, Tennessee, completed an extensive Accelerated Mission Test, or AMT, on a Pratt & Whitney F119 engine for the F-22 Raptor in April 2012. During an AMT, an engine undergoes a sequence of mission profiles to generate a specific number of total accumulated cycles, or TACs, simulating operational use. The purpose of this test was to add another 2,165 TACs to the engine, which is approximately equivalent to another five years of life to the currently expected twenty years (8,660 TACs) in the field. This particular engine will now go back to Pratt & Whitney to be inspected and rebuilt. It will return to AEDC later this year for another cycle of AMT work.