Engine maker GE Aerospace says it has successfully demonstrated an experimental concept design for a hybrid-electric turboshaft propulsion system.
The project was funded by the US Army Research Laboratory (ARL) under a $5 million research contract called the Applied Research Collaborative Systematic Turboshaft Electrification Project (ARC-STEP).
GE Aerospace used the funding to combine an existing CT7 turboshaft engine with an internally developed electrified powerplant rated up to 1MW. The CT7 family of engines includes the T700 series, which powers the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter.
Work on the project took place at the GE Aerospace Research Center in Niskayuna, New York, with the goal of investigating technologies that could enable lightweight, efficient, reliable and safe hybrid-electric propulsion systems.
The impact of hybrid-electric propulsion on the efficiency and effectiveness of various platform types was also examined, according to GE Aerospace.
Mike Kweon, programme manager for the ARL’s Versatile Tactical Power and Propulsion Essential Research programme, describes the effort as a success, saying the work “enhanced our understanding of the potential for MW-class series hybrid systems to power future army air and ground vehicles”.
“Often, power and propulsion systems are significant bottlenecks in advancing transformational capabilities,” he adds.
John Martin, director of turboshaft advanced programmes at GE Aerospace, says the demonstration event “refines technologies along a path for hybrid-electric propulsion for both the US Army and the world”.
Hybrid-electric propulsion systems are seen as a promising, albeit still largely untested, new line of business for the rotorcraft industry. Sikorsky is exploring the technology under its Hybrid Electric Experiment (HEX) programme, on which GE Aerospace is a partner.
The company is also partnered with NASA on the Electric Powertrain Flight Demonstration project, aiming to mature a MW-class integrated hybrid-electric powertrain and demonstrate flight readiness for single-aisle aircraft.
In the realm of conventional turboshaft production, GE Aerospace is also developing the next-generation T901 Improved Turbine Engine, that will modernise propulsion for the US Army’s fleet of more than 2,000 Black Hawks and 800 Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
That effort, which promises substantial improvements to power and fuel consumption, represents the US Army’s first entirely new aviation turbine engine since the Black Hawk and Apache entered service some four decades past.
