Pratt & Whitney shared a brand new video in regards to the XA103 engine, which features a computer-generated rendition of an F-47-inspired design. Nevertheless, it’s precisely that: a notional plane.
On Feb. 18, 2026, Pratt & Whitney shared, a brand new video in regards to the XA103 being developed for the Subsequent Technology Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) program. This system, which sees P&W competing towards Common Electrical, is notably growing the engine which is able to energy the Boeing F-47, the winner of the competitors for the U.S. Air Power’s Subsequent Technology Air Dominance (NGAD) manned fighter.
Apparently, the ultimate a part of the video is the one attracting many of the consideration on-line, because it reveals a computer-generated rendition of what could possibly be an F-47-inspired design. In truth, the plane seems to have each some similarities and variations when in comparison with the official F-47 renderings. Nevertheless, we’re simply being introduced a notional fighter with little or nothing in frequent with the actual factor, which stays fully unknown when it comes to form at the moment.
The Design within the Video
The idea within the video reveals a twin-engine single seat tailless plane, based mostly on a trapezoidal wing planform and canard foreplanes. Whereas the planform was not among the many seen facets of the official renderings, the canards had been. This design seems nonetheless to be lacking the extremely noticeable wing dihedral.
All of the notional renderings present the NGAD plane as a twin engine fighter, with the inlets on the underside. The official renderings present neither of those facets, whereas the plane in P&W’s video has two engines with F-22-like 2D thrust vectoring and two air inlets under the canard foreplanes.
The cockpit seems to be in a sophisticated place, in comparison with at this time’s fighters, though the nostril seems totally different from the shovel-like one beforehand proven. A maybe curious element is the serial quantity, whose ultimate digits are 048, presumably a touch to the F-47’s being the plane which might be powered by NGAP.
The video additionally reveals different USAF-related particulars, such because the increase receptable door and markings for air refueling and the livery impressed by the F-15C’s Compass Ghost Grey camouflage.
The Actual F-47?
Whereas some on social media inquired whether or not Pratt & Whitney by accident revealed the F-47’s design, it’s price noting a number of particulars. Because the award of the contract to Boeing in 2025, the U.S. Air Power has solely launched two renderings of the plane, and a variant of 1 was later launched by Boeing for the F/A-XX program.
Furthermore, these pictures solely confirmed a small a part of the plane. U.S. Air Power and business officers later revealed these have been closely edited to cover most, if not all, of the jet’s actual design options. As we beforehand reported right here at The Aviationist, an Air Power official mentioned these pictures ought to be “taken with a big grain of salt,” including they “aren’t giving something away in these photos.”
Notably, Boeing’s artists initially produced pictures that already intentionally distorted among the F-47’s options. The service later additional altered them to throw off overseas intelligence. This could possibly be the case additionally with P&W’s video.
Notional plane in official public info or advertising and marketing materials are fairly frequent.
As an illustration, in 2020, a mysterious subsequent era plane appeared in a poster revealed by the the Secretary of the Air Power Public Affairs for the U.S. Air Power’s 73rd birthday. The U.S. Air Power has additionally a historical past of good futuristic plane featured in posters celebrating the Air Power’s birthday. In 2017, a poster created as a part of a sequence of pictures celebrating the lead as much as the Air Forces seventieth birthday, featured the proposed successor to the SR-71 Blackbird, the unmanned, hypersonic SR-72, that “would journey at twice the pace of the SR-71, penetrating defended airspace and placing a goal earlier than being detected.” The form of the plane featured within the poster was based mostly on the few renderings first revealed in an AW&ST article revealed in 2013. So far, the precise form of the hypersonic plane stays a really effectively guarded secret regardless of hypothesis.
Newest Replace on XA-103
Pratt & Whitney says it’s utilizing a totally digital engineering method to speed up improvement of its Subsequent Technology Adaptive Propulsion (NGAP) engine. A digital mannequin of the XA103 adaptive engine structure was showcased throughout a current demonstration attended by U.S. Air Power officers.
The engine makes use of “a whole bunch of digital sensors” to trace efficiency, says the corporate. Through the demo, considered one of them was randomly deactivated, and the digital design is claimed to have allowed to pinpoint the sensors in a matter of minutes, as an alternative of hours.
“Lots of pleasure grew from the potential of this,” mentioned Alan Seipt, Pratt & Whitney’s validation chief for adaptive packages, “that it’s not simply residing in any person’s head or a bunch of dusty binders that you need to web page via to determine the place the connections are. It’s a digital device and with a pair buttons, you may perceive the place you’re at and make actual choices.”
Pratt & Whitney says that the XA103 is the primary engine it has developed fully inside a digital collaborative surroundings, linking design, testing, manufacturing and supply-chain companions via a shared knowledge structure. Engineers and suppliers work from the identical 3D model-based definitions, which might probably scale back errors, shortening manufacturing lead occasions and enabling earlier validation.
Firm officers argue that these instruments additionally enable the Air Power to interact extra intently all through improvement. As comparable case, the corporate mentions the cooperative mannequin used in the course of the F119 engine program for the F-22 within the Nineteen Nineties, permitting steady suggestions.
Pratt & Whitney’s XA103 engine
Pratt & Whitney, which is now a part of RTX, introduced on Feb. 20, 2025, the completion of the Detailed Design Evaluation (DDR) of the XA103 engine, its pitch for NGAP. Apparently, the corporate famous that it introduced its work “straight from its collaborative digital surroundings, offering reviewers with instant entry to all the info and materials to fulfill the stringent standards.”
Jill Albertelli, president of Pratt & Whitney Navy Engines, mentioned the method has already doubled the tempo at which technical knowledge packages are being delivered, highlighting the rising position of model-based design and digital collaboration in accelerating improvement timelines.
NGAP seeks to area an adaptive-cycle engine able to shifting in flight between high-performance and high-efficiency modes by various bypass ratio. The profitable design is predicted to finally energy the U.S. Air Power’s next-generation fighter, the Boeing F-47.
Nevertheless, with NGAP not anticipated to be finalized till round 2030, early manufacturing plane could depend on an interim propulsion answer. P&W is procuring {hardware} for the development of the XA103 prototype floor demonstrator, though the testing is predicted within the late 2020s.
The applied sciences and architectures of the NGAP program are being knowledgeable by the U.S. Air Power earlier funding within the Adaptive Engine Transition Program, whose learnings are thought of invaluable as among the applied sciences could possibly be “moveable” between the 2 packages. In the long run, the objective of the NGAP engine is to surpass the capabilities of fourth- and fifth-generation engines, says the corporate.
The corporate has invested roughly $30 million in its model-based digital surroundings in 2025 and expects greater than 1,000 engineers and assist employees, together with over 100 suppliers, to contribute to this system. The following main milestone will probably be an Meeting Readiness Evaluation, meant to finalize schedules for prototype meeting and testing.
