Pratt & Whitney celebrated the delivery of the 1,000th F135 production engine for the 5th Generation F-35 Lightning II fighter with Representatives John Larson and Joe Courtney during an event with employees and company leaders at its East Hartford headquarters.
“Pratt & Whitney is honoured to have Representatives John Larson and Joe Courtney with hundreds of our employees to celebrate the delivery of the 1000th F135 Engine,” said Pratt & Whitney President Shane Eddy. “This major milestone has been made possible by their stalwart support for the F135 engine and our innovative Engine Enhancement Program (EEP), designed to save the taxpayer money while delivering the additional power the F-35 requires.”
P&W’s presence in East Hartford dates back to the late 1920s, with the campus changing significantly over the years to meet commercial and military demand for its products and services. The East Hartford campus is home to advanced manufacturing and aftermarket operations for military and commercial products, including blades and vanes for the F135 engine. The newest building on campus, the 420,000 square-foot state-of-the-art Engineering & Technology Center, opened in 2017 and serves as the company’s world-class engineering facility.
"I congratulate Pratt & Whitney and the 27,000 workers across Connecticut that support the F135 on this milestone,” said Rep. John B. Larson (CT-01). “The F135 is the most advanced, reliable and capable fighter engine the world has ever known. For the last decade, the Pratt & Whitney engine has exceeded expectations and kept the F-35 fighter jet flying through three major air vehicle and weapons upgrades. Now is the time to invest in its modernization and continue to support the Connecticut workers that fuel the arsenal for democracy.”
“It was an honour to celebrate the delivery of the 1000th F135 engine with Pratt & Whitney today,” said Rep. Courtney (CT-02), Chairman of the House Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. “Thanks to the hard work by all employees over the last decade, the F135 engine has delivered propulsion capabilities unlike any other system in our military and our allies and continues to provide our most capable fighter jet with the safest and most reliable engine in the history of military aviation. The F135 keeps the F-35 flying, and as U.S. House Chair of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee in Washington, I will work to support the women and men of Pratt & Whitney who do so much for our nation.”
The F135 program is a major driver of economic growth in the state of Connecticut and around the country, supporting more than 53,000 jobs across 36 states. In Connecticut alone, the program supports more than 27,000 direct and indirect jobs and nearly 100 suppliers.
Evolved from the F119 engine powering the F-22 Raptor, the F135 delivers a step change in capability and dependability for the warfighter at a great value to the taxpayer. Since 2009, P&W has reduced the average production cost of the F135 by more than 50%, and from a sustainment perspective, has identified opportunities to reduce the cost of the first scheduled maintenance visit by approximately 40%.
The F135 also has ample design margin to grow for the F-35 missions of the future. P&W’s proposed block upgrade to the F135, known as the Enhanced Engine Package (EEP), delivers the fastest, most cost-efficient, lowest risk path to fully enabled Block 4 capability for all F-35 operators while saving taxpayers $40 billion in lifecycle costs and building upon a combat-tested architecture with more than one million flight hours of dependable operation.
