The U.S. Army announced the completion of the first engine to test of the General Electric-built T901 rotorcraft engine designed for the service’s fleet of helicopters.
T901 is a 3,000-shaft horsepower engine meant to power the Sikorsky-made UH-60 Black Hawk and Boeing-built AH-64 Apache helicopters and the Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft, the service said Thursday.
The FETT light off kicked off on March 22 and marked the start of a multiyear testing effort in ordre for the engine to achieve full qualification.
The service said the engine’s preliminary flight rating testing will begin in the fall of 2022 and continue through 2023 and will include eight T901 engines that will be evaluated against Army Military Airworthiness Certification Criteria standards, which will cover about 1,500 hours of engine testing.
T901 is set to undergo nearly 5,000 engine test hours to reach full engine qualification.
The Army’s aviation turbine engines program office at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama oversees the service’s rotary wing turbine engine and electrical power capability for the Army Aviation and coalition partners.
