The General Electric XA102 is an American adaptive cycle engine demonstrator being developed by

General Electric General Electric Company (GE) was an American Multinational corporation, multinational Conglomerate (company), conglomerate founded in 1892, incorporated in the New York (state), state of New York and headquartered in Boston. Over the year ...

(GE). It is competing with the Pratt & Whitney XA103 as the powerplant for the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Air force, air service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is one of the six United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Tracing its ori ...

's sixth generation fighter program, the Next Generation Air Dominance (NGAD). The three-stream adaptive cycle design can direct air to the bypass third stream for increased

fuel efficiency Fuel efficiency (or fuel economy) is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical energy, chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or Mechanical work, w ...

and cooling or to the core and fan streams for additional thrust and performance. The engine thrust has not been disclosed, although it is speculated by aviation reporters to be in the thrust class.

Development

The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy began pursuing adaptive cycle engines in 2007 with the Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (ADVENT) program, a part of the larger Versatile Affordable Advanced Turbine Engines (VAATE) program. This technology research program was then followed by the Adaptive Engine Technology Demonstrator (AETD) program in 2012, which continued to mature the technology, with tests performed using demonstrator engines. GE's ground demonstrator consists of a three-stage adaptive fan and a high pressure compressor derived from CFM LEAP's ten-stage compressor; the tests in 2015 yielded the highest combined compressor and turbine temperatures in the history of jet propulsion. The follow-on Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) was launched in 2016 to develop and test adaptive engines for sixth generation fighter propulsion as well as potential re-engining of the F-35 from the existing F135 turbofan engine. The demonstrators were assigned the designation XA100 for General Electric's design and XA101 for Pratt & Whitney's. While the XA100 and XA101 became focused on the potential re-engine of the F-35, a separate engine program was initiated for the Air Force's Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, which is expected to be optimized differently with a greater emphasis on supersonic cruise (or supercruise) performance; this program became the Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) and the entrants were the General Electric XA102 and Pratt & Whitney XA103. Critical design review of the XA102 was completed in December 2023, and flight testing is expected to begin in the late 2020s.

Design

The XA102 is a three-stream adaptive cycle engine that can adjust the bypass ratio and fan pressure to increase fuel efficiency or thrust, depending on the scenario. It does this by employing an adaptive fan that can direct air into a third bypass stream in order to increase fuel economy and act as a heat sink for cooling. The increased cooling and power generation also enables the potential employment of

directed energy weapons A directed-energy weapon (DEW) is a ranged weapon that damages its target with highly focused energy without a solid projectile, including lasers, microwaves, particle beams, and sound beams. Potential applications of this technology include w ...

in the future. When additional thrust is needed, the air from the third stream can be directed to the core and fan streams. In addition to three-stream adaptive cycle configuration, the engine also uses new heat-resistant materials such as

ceramic matrix composite In materials science ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) are a subgroup of composite materials and a subgroup of ceramics. They consist of ceramic fibers embedded in a ceramic Matrix (composite), matrix. The fibers and the matrix both can consist o ...

s (CMC) to enable higher turbine temperatures and improved performance.

Applications

* Next Generation Air Dominance (planned)

Specifications (XA102-GE-100)

References

External links