Production -220 and -229 Installs

[gopens85]

Hello all!

I am trying to figure out how many aircraft to date had the PW-220 engine installed during production and how many had PW-229 engine installed? i know they started with PW-200 engines, so not wanting to count any of those. If these numbers are able to be separated by USAF and FMS, that would be even better!

Thanks in advance!

[f119doctor]

Are you going include the -220E engines that were converted from -100 engines and retrofitted to F-15C/D and from -200 engines for pre-Block 30/32 F-16s?

Not to mention the -229s that were installed in the F-16 Block 42 after they were delivered with -220s?

I don’t have the answer, but it is not a straightforward answer.

[gopens85]

Key word here is production, which means aircraft built at the FW Plant. These would have brand new -220 or -229 engines from P&W.

[Bjorn]

Quite simple really. Only block 52's (and now 72's) were (are) delivered with the -229 engine factory fresh. All previous C/D models still had the -220E engine when delivered and were later retrofitted. Don't know how many retrofits have been concluded till today. Most probably all block 42's were modified, but we have no numbers of those nore from eventual earlier blocks. Although I presume that not a lot of the older block 25/32's have received it.

Greets,

[f119doctor]

Production only:

F-16: all block 32 and 42 delivered with -220. All block 52 with -229. Block 72 (if any) will be -229.

F-15: All F-15 A/B/C/D delivered with -100. early F-15E delivered with -220, later production with -229. Not sure of the production break-in for the -229 on F-15E. FMS F-15E+ is mixed bag of -229 or F110.

[nickyb]

I've always wondered how some 42's like the stingers out of Ohio had the newer motors like the 52's.

[f119doctor]

I've always wondered how some 42's like the stingers out of Ohio had the newer motors like the 52's.

The Block 42 aircraft with sensing and targeting pods had too much weight and drag penalty for the -220 engine. At least two ANG block 42 operators had their -220 engines replaced with -229 engines to increase their performance. Not sure if there were any more -229 block 42 retrofits after that.

[viperzerof-2]

Some early production Block 52 machines were temporarily retrofitted with the older F110-PW-220, due to bugs in the new engine variant. The F100-PW-229 IPE featured a distinctive gloss-black exhaust not used in the GE F110 or earlier P&W F100 variants. Some Block 40/42s were refitted with IPE engines.

https://www.airvectors.net/avf16_2.html#m5

Some block 52 had the 220?

[f119doctor]

A couple of notes on the Air Vectors link:

- The first flight of the -220 equipped block 32 was in June 1986, and the first of this block were delivered to the 944 AFRES at Luke AFB. Air Vectors indicates that the Block 15 OCU was equipped with -220, with a first flight in 1988. Does this imply that GD was producing both Block 30/32 and Block 15 OCU at the same time? Or was the Block 15 OCU a retrofit program only?

- in the Block 50/52 section, they initially refer to a -220 IPE engine. This is a typo, should be -229 IPE, as they write later in that paragraph. I am unaware of any early Block 52 temporarily equipped with -220, but it could have happened, since the two engines are an interchangeable fit (Block 52 would have the forward engine mount doubler beef up from production).

[basher54321]

A retrofit program but the capabilities were added into new FMS production and EPAF production in the late 1980s according to Code One back in the day.

New A/B Block 15 (OCU) were built from around 1988 (as per info on this site) upto around 1995 then the batch of new AB Block 20 for Taiwan were built from 1996. All with new PW-220s (?)

Not sure if OCU was an official designation for new builds but it helps differentiate the many changes (also structural) they had compared to the original Block 15.

[f119doctor]

Well, you learn something every day! Thanks for that info.