Tasked With Developing New Helicopter Turbine For US Army

The Advanced Turbine Engine Company, LLC (ATEC), a Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney joint venture, was awarded a $108 million contract by the US Army for the Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine (AATE) technology demonstrator program.

The AATE demonstrator program is designed to validate the technologies needed to achieve the Army's aggressive performance goals of 65 percent improvement in shaft horsepower (SHP)/weight ratio and a 25 percent improvement in specific fuel consumption (SFC) for the next generation 3,000 SHP turboshaft engine. This engine is planned to replace the T700 engine now powering UH-60 Black Hawk and AH-64 Apache helicopters.

"ATEC brings together the advanced technologies and engineering expertise of two industry leaders in gas turbine technology and development," said Dave Katariya, ATEC program director and Honeywell engineering director.

Jerry Wheeler, ATEC deputy program director and Pratt & Whitney program manager, said, "The ATEC team is focused on leveraging these strengths to meet the Army's performance goals for the next generation turboshaft engine. The advanced 3,000 SHP market represents a tremendous business growth opportunity, and we are excited about teaming to develop this new engine."

Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney announced the formation of ATEC and the intent to submit a joint proposal to the US Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate to develop an advanced turboshaft engine for the Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine technology demonstrator program at the Paris Air Show last year

FMI: www.pw.utc.com, www.honeywell.com