North Flight Data Systems (Booth No. 7841) has announced it will integrate and certify its lightweight aircraft recording system (Lars) in the Bell 407. In cooperation with helicopter services giant PHI and Rolls-Royce, North Flight will be integrating its voice, video and flight-data recording systems into a Bell 407 airframe.
Rotorcraft » Rotorcraft Engines
News and issues regarding all manner of civil and military rotorcraft powerplants.
February 10, 2012 - 7:30am
Air Technology Engines (ATE) of Naples, Fla., signed a T53 service center agreement with Honeywell, authorizing ATE to repair and overhaul Honeywell’s T53 series engine, which powers the Bell UH-1H Huey and other helicopters.
February 10, 2012 - 7:15am
Sikorsky has selected GE Aviation (Booth No. 1217) to provide the GE YT706-GE-700R engines and engineering support for Sikorsky’s S-97 Raider program. The Raider is the military version of the experimental X2, a single-engine rotorcraft with coaxial counter-rotating main rotors and a pusher propeller. The Fadec-controlled GE engine offers 2,500 to 3,000 shp and is based on the GE700/CT7 family. GE said it developed the GE3000 for medium-lift applications and this engine could be incorporated into the Raider in the future.
February 10, 2012 - 6:45am
Pratt & Whitney Canada (Booth No. 3317) is busy with developments on the PT6C-67E, which powers the Eurocopter EC175 medium twin, and the PW210 family, the powerplant for the Sikorsky S-76D and the AgustaWestland AW169 medium twins.
The PW210S (Sikorsky S-76D) and the PW210A (AgustaWestland AW169) have different certification schedules. The FAA certified the 1,077-shp PW210S last December after a postponement due to delays in the S-76D program.
February 10, 2012 - 6:35am
Olivier Andriès, who has been the CEO of Turbomeca since June, predicts that helicopter engines will become fuel-electric hybrids around 2030. He also predicted that, in about 20 years, conventional turbine engine performance will be close to an asymptote. By that, he meant further improvement of turbine technology will be enormously difficult and expensive, if not impossible. So the next step will be hybridization, he said. “We will see integrated propulsion systems using thermodynamic and electric solutions,” he told AIN.
February 10, 2012 - 6:35am
Oliver Andriès, From Ministries To Industry
January 20, 2012 - 10:40am
Sikorsky Aircraft named 35 suppliers participating in an industry-funded effort to build two prototype S-97 Raider helicopters for evaluation by the U.S. military. The Raider is a follow-on to the company’s X2 technology demonstrator with coaxial contra-rotating main rotors and a pusher propeller.
November 1, 2011 - 9:00am
Turbomeca plans to reduce the specific fuel consumption (SFC) of its turboshaft engines by 37 percent by 2030, and at the Helitech 2011 show discussed the strategies it is implementing to accomplish that change. While the company plans to make changes to the engine machinery, it expects much of the reduction to come from engine-airframe integration and new practices that make more efficient use of the engine.
October 27, 2011 - 3:13pm
As the Eurocopter EC145 T2 light twin helicopter has completed “hot and high” testing, the manufacturer has released “promising” performance estimates.
October 25, 2011 - 5:38pm
The Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210S, which will power the Sikorsky S-76D helicopter, received Canadian certification on October 14, P&WC announced yesterday. Test engines logged more than 8,700 hours in test cells and flight tests as part of the approval process.
