The US Army has agreed to re-engine 131 Air National Guard Bell UH-1 Hueys with the Allison-AlliedSignal LHTEC T800 turboshaft as part of a deal to provide production and in-service evaluation of the engine before it is needed for the Boeing/Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche.
The early production and fielding (EPAF) programme bridges a potential three-year production gap which threatened to "dissipate" the T800 engineering team before the production line is due to start for the RAH-66.
Fred Dickens, T800 business development manager, explains that "-under this deal, the Army will actually be purchasing Comanche engines, and installing and flying them on UH-1s". The Hueys are to come out of service when the engines are removed.
"We've told the Army that we will take them back when they want to put them on the Comanche. We'll take off the civil-engine controls, put on military controllers and a reduction gearbox, inspect and test them, then ship them to the RAH-66 production line," adds Dickens. LHTEC will hold a final co-ordination meeting with the US Army in the middle of this month in preparation for a formal request for proposals. "We are looking to be on contract around June or July," he says.
The initial contract, expected to be valued at around $10 million, covers the installation of engines and related systems in two UH-1s. Qualification tests will be performed on the first aircraft before a full contract is issued to cover installation in the remaining 129 helicopters. Formal qualification is still required despite the recent experimental re-engineing trial of the T800 in five US Border Patrol UH-1s. The engines were returned when the Patrol chose smaller helicopters and the trial ended.
The EPAF agreement will effectively provide LHTEC with its first, long-awaited, production contract and will come as a welcome relief to the joint company which was wondering how it could effectively hold the T800 line together until the delayed start of RAH-66 production in 1999/2000. It has pursued UH-1 re-engineing for several years, although not simply to keep the T800 line active, but also because the re-engined Huey has 70% greater range than that of the original Lycoming T53-powered version.
Source: Flight International
