The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration last week flew the first P-3 Orion fully retrofitted with improved Rolls-Royce engine kits that increase fuel efficiency and performance.
The company hopes the successful flight test will open the door to contracts for retrofits to other P-3 fleets and the Air Force’s C-130s, which Rolls-Royce said could save the service a total $2 billion.
NOAA became the launch customer for what Rolls calls the Series 3.5 program designed as a depot-level overhaul to the T56 engine. Both the agency’s hurricane-hunting P-3s will receive the retrofits that boost fuel efficiency by up to 12 percent, said Tom Hartmann, vice president of customer business at Rolls-Royce.
The first aircraft will be operational after a shakedown period that should conclude in time for its use in the 2015 hurricane season. The second aircraft’s T56 engines will then be retrofit in time for it to fly next year, he said.
The depot-level repair requires the same amount of time and work as a traditional engine overhaul–30 to 45 days–and involves one-to-one swaps of components in both the “hot” and “cool” sections of the engine. The kit requires no changes to the aircraft controls or other systems.
NOAA’s aircraft showed up to 12 percent fuel savings, though the program is marketed to save around 9 percent. Rolls-Royce also said it can extend the C-130s range by nearly 10 percent and improve the turbine reliability by 22 percent.
During several flights that occurred during the week of June 1 at MacDill AFB, Fla., the retrofitted engine demonstrated the ability to fly 200 knots at 30,000 feet, a dramatic improvement over the engine’s conventional ceiling, Hartmann said.
“It also operates cooler most of the time, but there is more power there when you need it,” Hartmann told reporters during a June 8 conference call.
The data collected from NOAA’s use of the engine kit will be used to market the Series 3.5 as a standard upgrade to both P-3s and C-130s in the Air Force and foreign operators of those aircraft, Hartmann said.
“While it’s a great kickoff and a great customer, we’re looking forward to using this success and the performance benefits that they are clearly seeing to blacken the skies with 3.5s,” he said.
“This is the kind of data we needed to sell this kit worldwide and turn interest into sales,” Hartmann added. There has been keen interest from unnamed potential customers who wanted to see the kit’s promised performance improvements demonstrated, Hartmann said.
The largest single potential customer is the Air Force, which has about 200 early-model C-130s that would benefit from the upgrades. Company materials claim the Air Force could save $2 billion over the life of its C-130 fleet by purchasing the Series 3.5 kit.
Most of those A- through H-models that are powered by the T56 are in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. The newer C-130J is powered by the Rolls-Royce AE21003D turboprop.
“There have been a bunch of nibbles and a couple of strong levels of interest waiting for this data,” Hartmann said. There are around 400 to 500 aircraft worldwide that could receive the Series 3.5 retrofit.