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From : bscoran@mymts.net Sat, Dec 16, 2017 10:44 PM

Subject : 250
To : ken <bscoran@mymts.net>

The Little Engine That Did

Posted on May 20, 2014 by Vertical Mag

On the helicopter side of the aviation world, Allison, a former division of General
Motors that is now owned by Rolls-Royce, built its reputation as an innovator of
light gas-turbine engines. Key to that reputation was the 250 series engine, which,
in 2011, celebrated the 50th anniversary of its first flight.

Most readers are aware of the success of the 250 series. But, not everyone knows
the story of how the 250 was first created and then progressed into multiple,
successful models that dominated the small gas turbine market and was largely
responsible for developing the light turbine helicopter industry.
Starting the Journey

Now known as the Rolls-Royce M250, the original Allison 250 series engine was
conceived of in 1957, when the United States Army announced during an NACA
(National Advisory Council for Aeronautics, now NASA) meeting that it wanted a
250-shaft-horsepower (s.h.p.) gas turbine engine. An Army study in 1956 had
determined the need for such a lightweight engine to power its future aircraft, and
that the higher-power-to-weight ratio of gas turbines, over reciprocating engines,
was the way to go.

Design study contracts were spread throughout the industry to many of the key
players at the time, such as Garrett, Curtiss-Wright, Teledyne and Lycoming. Army
specifications dictated a turbine engine configuration with 250 s.h.p., and that it be
useable in both airplanes and helicopters. Additionally, a small package was
required, and it had to have a low cost per unit, low fuel consumption and a 1,000-
hour lifespan. Allison made a formal presentation of its design (the Model 250) in
March 1958.
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By that June, Allison won the contract to produce the 250 (T63 military) engines.
With a household name, General Motors was seen to be a dependable contractor
with vast resources on hand; along with its low projected bid, this was a likely
factor in Allison’s selection.

That original 250 design had a seven-stage axial compressor, a single-stage

centrifugal compressor, a singlestage gas producer turbine and a two-stage power
turbine. It had a rating of 250 s.h.p. and weighed 110 pounds in turboprop form
and 95 pounds in turboshaft form.

It was projected that a small turbine engine would cost $16 million to $20 million to
develop, with an end unit price of around $4,000. Allison, though, bid lower than
the estimate in its proposal, entering into a fixed $6.4 million cost-sharing contract
with the U.S Army, with overages to be the responsibility of Allison. In the end,
costs surpassed the original projections, but history would prove it to be one of the
most successful engine designs.

Heading up the design and development team for the 250 series was Charles
McDowall, chief of preliminary design; and Bill Castle, chief project engineer — who
was also involved with the mechanical design for the compressor. Other key team
members included Beauford Hall on turbine design, Bob Larkin on gearbox design,
and Joseph Barney spearheading the combustor design and the aerodynamic design
on the turbine and compressor. Meanwhile, Bob Wente handled control, and Russ
Hall focused on aerodynamic design information for the compressor and turbine.

From the beginning, the 250 had a unique design: the gearbox, located in the
center of the engine, was the engine’s primary structure and contained the hard
mounts. Air was drawn through the compressor, attached to the front of the
gearbox, and was sent through a diffuser, then through two tubes running down
the outside of the engine to a single combustor at the engine’s tail. During
combustion, gases flowed forward into the single-stage core and twin-stage power
turbines, with exhaust gases leaving the engine through the bottom. For anyone
who is somewhat familiar with the 250, you will probably recognize this design as
being only vaguely similar to today’s 250 series engine. Part of the reason for this is
due to the big challenges the design team would soon face.
After the Euphoria

After the excitement of the contract win came the reality of the project — Castle
was instructed that he needed to have the new engine operational in less than a
year. One of the challenges facing his engineers was the scaling down of the
current turbine design and technology, which had arisen around the proportionally
larger turbine engines on the market.

Early 250 test models were problematic in all areas, including poor compressor
airflow performance and turbine efficiency. In fact, it got so bad that the designers
came to a crossroads: should they continue with the current flawed design or begin
with a new one? They chose the latter and re-engineering began in late 1959 and a
new chief project engineer, John Wetzler, was soon in charge.

In the new design, there was a reworking of the exhaust — it went from single to
dual exhaust ducts —while minimal changes were made to the gearbox
configuration. The turbine section saw significant changes, with a second turbine
stage added, and the compressor diameter was also enlarged slightly. A six-stage
axial compressor design was drawn up to improve airflow ratios, and the centrifugal
compressor was reengineered to improve aerodynamic design.
In 1960, initial preliminary flight rating tests (PFRTs) for the new design showed
promise, but the problems continued — as did the modifications to resolve each
problem.

That year, the Army announced a light observation helicopter (LOH) design
competition, to satisfy its needs for a multi-role helicopter for visual reconnaissance,
command and control, and acquisition of targets. The Bell OH-4A, Hiller OH-5A and
Hughes OH-6A were soon selected as finalists. Each, along with the winning design,
were to be powered by Allison’s engine — but the Army was becoming concerned
with Allison’s slowed progress, and with a recent turbine failure, and held a
competition to award a contract for an alternate engine supplier who would serve
as a back-up if Allison fell short. But, Allison’s team of engineers worked countless
hours to solve its problems with the T63, and was finally rewarded with a successful
50-hour PFRT.

Early flight-testing of the T63 (YT63-A-3) in 1962 was conducted by Allison and Bell
Helicopter in Indianapolis, Ind., with the Bell UH-13R — basically, a converted Bell
47/HUL-1M. Unfortunately, unexpected problems occurred involving the engine’s
governing system and fuel control, which controlled engine power based on the
pilot’s collective control inputs. It was a problem that would prove incredibly
complex in solving.
The issue had to do with the helicopter rotor system’s torsional dynamics — the
flapping, feathering and lead/ lag components of normal operation. As the rotor
system was turning at operating r.p.m., the governor/fuel control system was so
incredibly sensitive at trying to compensate for the varying loads on each blade that
the engine’s power increased beyond limits, forcing a hovering autorotation and
engine shutdown. Engineers solved the issue with the Bell platform through
alterations in the engine’s pneumatic dampening system, but realized that
differences in rotor design (and therefore, rotor dynamics) — i.e., a three- or four-
bladed main rotor vs. Bell’s twoblade system — would require a different solution
for each one. The engine would need to be matched to each platform, and
according to Allison’s chief test pilot, Jack Schweibold, overcoming that proved the
biggest challenge they would face during these flight tests.

Other concerns led to the exhaust being needed to be turned upward (the
downward exhaust was related to the Army’s idea of the engine being used in fixed-
wing applications). So, the engine was basically installed upsidedown, and this
became the YT63-A-5.
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One of the other problems the T63 experienced at this stage of development was a
delay in its response to rapid power increase requirements, for maneuvers such as
aborted landings. For this concern, it was determined that a bleed valve
incorporated into the compressor would increase the margins of compressor stall,
allowing for faster power responses.

Finally, in December 1962, all the work paid off and the T63-A-5 met its military
approval and the civilian Model 250-C10 met U.S. Federal Aviation Administration
standards and was certificated. It was official; the 250 would indeed go into the
winner of the LOH competition.

Deciding on a winner, though, proved almost as troublesome as the development of

the 250/T63. From January to June 1964, LOH testing was conducted, and it
seemed the Hiller OH-5A would come out on top. But, Hughes controversially
underbid its competitors and won the Army’s contract in May 1965; delivery of the
OH-6 Cayuse then began in 1966.

New Outcomes

By 1967, even though the OH-6 was performing well in Vietnam — and had set
almost two-dozen world records — problems had arisen with production. Dramatic
unit cost increases and slow production began to worry the Army. Given this
uncertainty with Hughes, the Army re-launched the LOH competition, which was
won by Bell in 1968 with its revised OH-4A, the Bell 206A, which became the OH-
58A Kiowa in military form.
For Allison, the choice of Bell was a positive one, as it was already providing the
317-s.h.p. 250-C18 for the 206 JetRanger — as well as the Hughes 500 (civilian
OH-6) — and had found improvements that aided its military engines, as well. In
the end, both of the Allison-powered LOH winners went on to serve the military well
in Vietnam; and their civilian counterparts helped define the commercial light
turbine market.

Allison next began working on the Series II 250 engines, and in May 1970
certificated the C20 version, which was rated at 400 s.h.p. Over the succeeding
decades, it went on to produce a host of variants, as well as Series III and IV
versions with increased power and improved features — all to great success. In
fact, by the late-1980s, the T63/250 had captured 80 percent of the lightturbine
helicopter-engine market share in noncommunist nations, and the 250 was also
being used in light-twin-engine helicopters such as the MBB Bo.105 and
Aérospatiale AS355.

In 1995, Allison was purchased by Rolls-Royce for US$525 million. And, Rolls-Royce
has continued to improve upon the reliable and hearty 250 series (now M250)
engines to this day. It even created a new engine, the RR300, to carry on the 250’s
legacy of being a lightweight, low-cost choice for smaller light helicopter
applications.