Harrier III-AV8B with a Modern Engine

The paper examines the application of a 26,156 lb thrust engine (which is 30% more thrust than the short-lift dry rating on the F402-RR-406 Pegasus engine) to an AV-8B aircraft. This modern engine has 30% more thrust than the F402-RR-406 Pegasus engine with no increase in engine weight; the weight is assumed to be constant for bath engines. The paper focuses on the benefit to the AV-8B in increasing short takeoff gross weight and vertical. landing weight. A second comparison is made between the bigger engine with the existing thrust versus SFC curve, and a 10% lower SFC curve. The notion that a modern engine with 10% lower SFC and 30% more thrust for the same size and weight is presented as a hypothesis and is not supported by discussing engine technology. There are no engine data or technical discussion as to how the modern engine is constructed or which manufacturer could build it. The performance estimates are generated by ACSYNT, a NASA developed computer code that is available to U.S. industry and has been reported on in a number of other publications. (The takeoff performance is estimated by a program that is the subject of another paper at this Conference.)