America's engine technology has always been highly enviable to us. They are not only highly skilled, but also highly reliable, and they may have no shortcomings other than price. Moreover, mainstream united states military helicopters are largely using the same range of engines, making logistics and maintenance simpler. More recently, more envious things have come to light, as the united states general electric t901 vortex engine is being tested, which will be the standard engine for the next generation of attack reconnaissance helicopters and will replace the current main army helicopter. How envious is every engine this time
T901 engines tested
For the brief foreword, the current main helicopter of the united states army is the black eagle family and apache and the ch47 slave-dry, both of which have similar weights and flight properties, thus using the same series of t7000 turbine axes, with a single power of around 1900 horsepower, which is a strong vortex engine. Ch47 is about twice the weight of the two and therefore uses a more powerful model. With the exception of the two types of helicopter in the army, the engine was used by the ah1z and uh1y helicopters in the navy and marines, as well as by the sh60 seahawks, which are common on board military vessels. Even some of the light fixed-wing aircraft use derivative versions of the engine series, and there are more than 20,000 production units worldwide, with large families。
Black hawks have two t700 vortex engines on both sides of the fuselage
Russia, too, has a major helicopter, mi8m24 and mi28, and kamov's ka27ka52, which use the tv3-117 series of engines, with about 2,200 horsepower, a powerful helicopter vortex engine, with a much greater output than t700. And because of the power of the tv3-117 engine, russian helicopters are strong players, either in terms of transport capability, such as the mi8 and mi17 series, or in terms of armoured multi-protective capacity, such as mi28. In contrast, the maximum power of our direct 10 helicopters is said to be around 1,300 horsepower, which is indeed not very good compared to the mainstream force, while the current accelerated production of direct 20 engines with more than 2,600 horsepower is very strong。
Mi28's shield is complete
The t901 engine is much stronger than the above-mentioned engine, which has been designed since 2010 and is said to cost more than $300 million in general electrical development. As early as 2006, the united states had begun a completely new itep project, the so-called turbo engine improvement project, to replace the t700 series of motors of the fleet with an advanced but affordable turbine engine. General electric's t901 won, defeated the inclusive t900 engine, and even exceeded the original plan by demonstrating the traditional advantage of the united states in the engine sector, which was excellent。
T901 engine size is not big
The parameters of t901 are excellent, with a length of about 1. 2 metres and a diameter of less than 660 mm, but the maximum power of 3,000 horses is striking, 50 per cent higher than the previous t700, but fuel consumption is also 25 per cent lower and quite excellent. In terms of power alone, the t901 engine is undoubtedly the strongest model in that class, and with the replacement of the new engine, the flight performance of helicopters such as black eagle seahawk and apache will be greatly enhanced and will increase the range of flights, both。
The t901 engine is currently being tested, and subsequent testing will last for a long period, with the total duration of the test approaching 5,000 hours, during which problems will be fully identified and data collected to form the basis for future replacements。
In 2019, general electric won a $517 million contract from the united states military, and last year boeing also won a bill for $240 million to install the brand-new t901 engine on the ah64e apache helicopter. As can be seen from this amount of funding, the united states helicopter replacement programme will have to last a long time, after all, the size of the united states helicopter force is too large to produce at least 5,000 new engines。
Apache is the focus of the change
The biggest problem now was the length of the plan, which had lasted 16 years since 2006, and the final phase of production and replacement would have to wait beyond 2024. It must be said that the plan was a long one and that although it would not only change engines for old helicopters but would also provide advanced engines for new ones, no technology could afford delays. Many of the current weapons upgrading or replacement programmes in the united states are delayed for a variety of reasons, which would make it easy to catch up with, or even reverse, the technology that is already leading。
