Honeywell Bolsters F-35 Power and Thermal Management System

Honeywell Aerospace is developing upgrades to the F-35's power and thermal management system (PTMS) to improve reliability and support future mission-system requirements. The company is pursuing heat exchanger and liquid-cooling upgrades, as well as software changes and turbomachine durability improvements.

The upgrades will boost cooling capacity and operational margins while improving maintainability and reducing lifecycle costs. Honeywell says the work is part of a larger effort to expand manufacturing and sustainment capacity for the growing global F-35 fleet.

Honeywell developed the F-35 PTMS with Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office during the early development of the Joint Strike Fighter program. The system provides power and thermal management for aircraft functions and mission systems, and Honeywell says it has delivered 1,325 PTMS units that have accumulated more than 1 million flight hours across the global fleet.