A variety of efficiency, environmental and comfort-boosting rotorcraft technologies are to be demonstrated in the next four years as the 10-year, €1.6 billion ($2.3 billion) European Clean Sky initiative, launched in 2008, begins to bear fruit.
Officials from Eurocopter and AgustaWestland, team members in Clean Sky's €160 million green rotorcraft technology programme, revealed details of future flight and ground trials at the Paris air show. PZL Swidnik - AgustaWestalnd's Polish subsidiary - research institutions and academia are also part of the effort.
The first technology to make an appearance under the scheme is a diesel engine instead of a turboshaft engine for a light helicopter starting in 2014. Yves Favennec, vice-president of research and innovation for Eurocopter, said a new engine being built by a new consortium that includes Wiener Neustadt-based Austro Engine, French automotive specialist TEOS Powertrain Engineering, and others, will be shipped to Eurocopter in November 2013 for installation on an EC120 light single.
Favennec said the HIPE AE440 diesel engine is targeted to be 30% more fuel efficient than the EC120's standard Turbomeca turboshaft engine, helping to reach a European goal of cutting carbon dioxide emissions per passenger-kilometre by 50% by 2020.
The target time-before-overhaul of the Jet-A fuelled engine will be more than 2,000h.
Other efficiency boosting projects in the pipeline include active and passive rotor blade improvements. James Wang, vice-president of research and development for AgustaWestland, said it is targeting increases in efficiency of 8% for hover and 6% for cruise, with noise reduced by a factor of two.
Technologies include an active twist method using piezo-electric crystal strips along the blade to provide 2-3° of twist when voltage is applied through a control algorithm, as well as active Gurney flaps that are deployed from the trailing edge of the blade. Passive blade improvements include laminar flow designs.
Eurocopter and AgustaWestland are also investigating electric helicopter technologies for 2015 demonstrations, with Eurocopter focusing on electric flight control actuators and AgustaWestland targeting electrically driven tail rotors as well as power regeneration from engine exhaust and main rotor braking.
Wang said the participants are hoping to test the most promising technologies in a demonstrator helicopter by around 2017.
Source: Flight International
