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New milestones for Military Systems

July 18, 2018
GE Aviation has hit another milestone for the T901-GE-900 engine, GE’s offering for the U.S. Army’s Improved Turbine Engine Program. In June, GE Aviation submitted its technical proposal, which is the second and final phase of its Engineering and Manufacturing Development (EMD) proposal to the U.S. Army. In addition, the Army and GE also successfully completed their Preliminary Design Review (PDR) last month, approving GE Aviation’s design and configuration of the T901 engine.



The T901 is an undertaking to re-engine the U.S. Army’s Boeing AH-64 Apaches and Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawks.

“Using GE’s industry leading technologies, rather than mechanical complexity, to meet ITEP requirements enables the use of a single-spool design, making the T901 engine less complex, less expensive and lighter weight,” said Ron Hutter, executive director of the T901 program. “The T901’s single-spool core enables full modularity, building on the success of the combat-proven T700 and providing the Army superior fix-forward maintainability, reduced life-cycle costs and improved Warfighter readiness.” With fewer parts and a simpler design, the T901 is more reliable and more maintainable. The fully modular design also offers superior growth potential at a lower cost through incremental improvements to engine modules, a significant advantage to meeting the U.S. Army’s Future Vertical Lift requirements as they develop.

Learn more about the T901’s proven, single-spool design here.



GE Aviation’s Adaptive Cycle Engine has also made recent advances. On June 29, GE was awarded a $437 million contract modification from the U.S. Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The contract modification is for the execution of next generation adaptive propulsion risk reduction for potential air superiority applications. GE, along with the U.S. Air Force, has matured the enabling technologies and architectures of adaptive cycle engines through a series of highly-successful design and test activities in the Adaptive Versatile Engine Technology (ADVENT), Adaptive Engine Technology Development (AETD), and Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) efforts.

GE successfully designed and tested multiple three-stream adaptive fan configurations, an advanced compressor rig, two full-scale core engines, and a full three-stream adaptive cycle technology demonstrator engine.



“Three-stream adaptive cycle engines bring a generational change to what propulsion can provide as compared to legacy engines or potential upgrades to legacy engines. It will be a game changer in combat capability with unmatched improvements in range, thrust and heat dissipation capacity, critical to future mission requirements, while enabling upgrades in avionics and weapons,” said Dan McCormick, general manager of GE’s Advanced Combat Engine programs. Find out more about this recent contract award and the Adaptive Cycle Engine here.

Both the T901 and the Adaptive Cycle Engine will be game changers for GE Aviation’s Military Systems.

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GE Aerospace is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, as well as integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft.