T700 ENGINE - DESIGNED FOR THE PILOT AND MECHANIC

The increased helicopter usage experienced in the 1960's brought with it greater awareness of the importance of reliability, maintainability and human factors as design considerations. The cost of helicopter engine maintenance and down time was becoming increasingly burdensome to both military and civilian operators. It was apparent that rather than be just implicit design considerations, reliability, maintainability and human factors qualities would have to be translated into specific design requirements. Recognizing this, the U.S. Army included such requirements in the specification for its new 1500 horsepower class engine, the T700-GE-700. This led to the incorporation of many features which were aimed specifically at making it easier for the pilot to fly the helicopter and easier for the mechanic to fix the engine. The combined effect of incorporating these features on the operation and maintenance of the fielded engine has been dramatic. Overall engine removal rate of the T700-GE-700 has been reduced to one-sixth of prior generation engines and the maintenance man-hour burden has been similarly reduced. These improvements have also had an extremely positive effect on the supportability aspects of the T700-GE-700 engine, reducing spare engines, spare parts and support equipment requirements as well as making training easier.