EVENDALE, Ohio - Marking a key milestone for GE's F110 engine family, the U.S. Air Force has begun a Field Service Evaluation (FSE) program for the F-15E aircraft powered by F110-GE-129 engines.

Although the F110 is not currently deployed on the twin-engine F-15, the F110 engine family powers more than 70 percent of the single-engine F-16C/Ds in service worldwide with the USAF and five foreign governments.

The USAF F110/F-15E FSE program is scheduled for approximately 18 months to two years in duration and will involve more than 1,000 engine flight hours on two F-15E aircraft from the USAF Operational Test and Evaluation Squadron based at Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas, Nevada.

The FSE program follows the successful completion of the 1996 qualification flight test of the F110-GE-129 in the F-15E, which involved 19 flights and 44 flight hours.

"This FSE program is an excellent opportunity to accumulate considerable operational flight data on an F110-powered F-15E in a realistic tactical environment, while evaluating engine reliability and durability," said Dan McCormick, project manager of the F110/F-15 FSE program at GE Aircraft Engines.

The first flight of a GE-powered F-15E for the FSE program occurred on April 11, and the second aircraft is scheduled to begin flight testing later this year. The F110-GE-129 requires few external adjustments for installation into the F-15E engine bays. In the past decade, the F110 engine has accumulated more than two million flight hours powering almost 1,000 F-16C/D aircraft worldwide, in addition to powering 127 F-14Bs and F-14Ds of the U.S. Navy.