Soloy has received the 100th LTS101 turboshaft from Honeywell for the Olympia, Wash. company’s Eurocopter AS 350 engine conversion program. Soloy Aviation Solutions and Honeywell inked a pact for AStar AS 350BA and AS 350B2 re-
engining in 2004.

Honeywell has been delivering the 650-shp LTS101-600A-3A for the AS 350BA retrofit, and the -700D-2 for the AS 350B2. The latter, Honeywell’s latest and most powerful LTS101 engine model, delivers 732 takeoff shp, a 14-percent increase at sea level compared with the -600A-3A, through introduction of a new gas-producer (GP) turbine assembly.

The LTS101 family has logged more than nine million flight hours while Honeywell has continually improved the engine with new technology. The result has been a demonstrated four-fold reliability improvement since 1996, while unscheduled removals and warranty claims have fallen to their lowest values in the history of the engine, Honeywell said.

The LTS101-700D-2 promises to further enhance those numbers with increased GP disk life from 6,300 to 15,000 cycles, and an updated version of the reduction gear set from other LTS101 models. Together, these changes yield a reduction in accumulated power turbine cycles of 35 percent and a torque limit increase of 6 percent.

Dave Stauffer, Soloy Aviation Solutions CEO, commented, “We’ve delivered several [AStar] kits into the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia and are now opening new markets in Brazil, Europe and Asia. Interest remains high, as many operators wish to take advantage of the LTS101 benefits.”