Contingency Power Concepts for Helicopter Turboshaft Engine

Twin helicopter engines are often sized by power requirement of safe mission completion after the failure of one of the two engines. This study was undertaken for NASA Lewis by General Electric Co. to evaluate the merits of special design features to provide a 2 1/2 minute Contingency Power rating, permitting an engine size reduction. The merits of water injection, cooling flow modulation, throttle push and an auxiliary power plant were evaluated using military life cycle cost (LCC) and commercial helicopter direct operating cost (DOC) merit factors in a “rubber engine/rubber aircraft” scenario.