MH-60M Flight Test Program

The MH-60M is being developed as an upgrade to facilitate modernization of the Special Operations Black Hawk fleet and includes an alternate engine installation to improve high altitude, hot day operations. The MH-60M is a UH-60M with Special Operations Aircraft modifications. The overall test and evaluation program of the MH-60M was divided into three phases aligned with the availability and qualification status of specific critical components of the MH-60M. The initial phase of testing was conducted March-July 2007, and focused on engine/airframe compatibility testing on an instrumented UH-60M aircraft with limited MH-60M modifications. The limited MH-60M modifications on the test aircraft were the General Electric (GE) YT706-GE-700 (YT706) turboshaft engine (a variant of the commercial CT7-8B5 engine) with full authority digital electronic control (FADEC), the common avionics architecture system (CAAS) cockpit, and limited MH-60M mission equipment. This paper addresses the YT706 engine response to collective inputs and different FADEC control modes. The FADEC utilizes multiple sensors and inputs to determine the control mode. During this initial phase of testing, the FADEC software mirrored the software for the commercial variant of the YT706 engine. Even though the current FADEC software provides improved engine response in some cases, the FADEC software was not optimized for installation in the MH-60M, which resulted in degraded performance in some instances of Power Control Lever (PCL) movements and implementation of training modes.