RACING TO PULSE DETONATION.

A division of GENERAL ELECTRIC and Pratt & Whitney----

two titans of jet-engine design

—are baffling to develop the first operational pulse-detonation engine.

EMPLOYEES

GE 26,000; P&W 33,000

2002 REVENUES

GE. $11.1 billion; P&W; $7.6 billion

MILESTONES

GE.

• 1-A: First U.S. let engine (1941)

• J93: First Mach 3 engine (1957)

• GE9O-1 1 5B: World record for single-engine thrust: 127,900 lb. (2003)

P & W.

• J57: Powered first supersonic production aircraft, the F-100 Sabre fighter (1953)

• PW2000: First engine to use digital controls for maximum fuel efficiency (1984)

• Fl 1 9-PW-l00: Allowed supersonic cruise without afterburner, in F-22 Raptor (1997)

PDE STATUS

GE.  Bench-scale experiments ($8 million invested since 1999)

P & W. Full-scale multi-chamber test engine ($20 million invested since 1993)

TECH STRATEGY

GE. Aerodynamic valve prevents airflow to the chamber at the appropriate time,

          permitting detonation.

P & W. High-speed rotary valve cuts off air-flow to each of five combustion chambers; a pre-detonator initiates the transition.

SHORT-TERM GOALS

GE.  Hybrid PDE protoiype by 2005

P & W. Pure PDE missile prototype by 2005

20-YEAR STRATEGY

GE. Hybrid engines for subsonic and super-sonic aircraft

P & W. Pure PDE missiles, then hybrids in military and passenger lets

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