Allison AE2100
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The Rolls-Royce AE 2100 is a
turboprop A turboprop is a Gas turbine, gas turbine engine that drives an aircraft Propeller (aeronautics), propeller. A turboprop consists of an intake, reduction drive, reduction gearbox, gas compressor, compressor, combustor, turbine, and a propellin ...
developed by
Allison Engine Company The Allison Engine Company was an American aircraft engine manufacturer. Shortly after the death of James A. Allison, James Allison in 1929 the company was purchased by the Fisher Body, Fisher brothers. Fisher sold the company to General Motors ...
, now part of
Rolls-Royce North America Rolls-Royce North America, Inc. is a subsidiary of multinational corporation Rolls-Royce plc. The American unit operates under a Special Security Arrangement which allows it to work independently on some of the most sensitive United States de ...
. The engine was originally known as the GMA 2100, when Allison was a division of former corporate parent
General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...
.


Development

On July 11, 1989,
Saab-Scania Saab-Scania AB was a Swedish vehicle manufacturer that was formed from the 1969 merger of Saab AB and Scania-Vabis. The company was split in 1995. History Truck and bus manufacturer Scania AB of Södertälje merged with car and aeroplane manu ...
A.B. selected the GMA 2100 to power its new
Saab 2000 The Saab 2000 is a twin-engined high-speed turboprop airliner built by Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab. It is designed to carry 50–58 passengers and able to cruise at a maximum speed of . Production took place in Linköping, Sweden. It ...
, a 50-seat stretch of the
Saab 340 The Saab 340 is a Swedish twin-engine turboprop aircraft designed and initially produced by Saab AB and Fairchild Aircraft. It is designed to seat 30–36 passengers and, as of July 2018, there were 240 operational aircraft used by 34 differen ...
turboprop, in a US$500 million deal. In July 1990, Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN) of Indonesia picked the GMA 2100 as the engine for the twin-engine
N-250 The IPTN N-250 was a turboprop regional airliner designed by Indonesian firm IPTN (''Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara'') (now Indonesian Aerospace). This aircraft was IPTN's first major effort to win the market share of the regional turboprop ...
regional airliner. Flight testing with a Dowty R373 propeller on a
Lockheed P-3 Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop Anti-submarine warfare, anti-submarine and maritime patrol aircraft, maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. It is based on the Lockheed ...
testbed aircraft A testbed aircraft is an aeroplane, helicopter or other kind of aircraft intended for flight research or testing the aircraft concepts or on-board equipment. These could be specially designed or modified from serial production aircraft. Use of ...
began on August 23, 1990, and finished after over 50 hours of flight and ground testing. The GMA 2100D3 became the powerplant for the
Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The C-130J is the ...
. It made its first test flight on March 19, 1994, which was conducted by Marshall Aerospace on a Lockheed C-130K Hercules testbed leased from the
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...
. Testing ended in June 1994 after 47 flight hours. The engine powered the initial flight of the C-130J aircraft on April 5, 1996. By April 1997, the D3 variant had received
Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is a Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of Transportation, U.S. Department of Transportation that regulates civil aviation in t ...
(FAA) type certification. 2,000 of the D3 variants have been delivered as of 2018. The engine's C variant was certified on December 20, 1993. It powered the N-250 prototype's first flight on August 10, 1995, but the N-250 aircraft program was postponed indefinitely in the late 1990s due to the
Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide economic meltd ...
. In June 1997, the AE 2100 was selected by
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
and Alenia to power the
C-27J Spartan The Alenia C-27J Spartan is a military transport aircraft developed and manufactured by Leonardo's Aircraft Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi until 2016). It is an advanced derivative of the former Alenia Aeronautica's earlier G.222 (C-27 ...
tactical airlifter An airlift is the organized delivery of supplies or personnel primarily via military transport aircraft. Airlifting consists of two distinct types: strategic and tactical. Typically, strategic airlifting involves moving material long distan ...
. In October 2015, Alenia announced plans to use a uprated version of the AE 2100 as the baseline engine by 2017.


Design

A derivative of the Allison AE 1107C-Liberty ( Rolls-Royce T406)
turboshaft engine A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaft horsepower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the ...
, the AE 2100 shares the same high-pressure core as that engine, as does the Rolls-Royce AE 3007
turbofan A turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a combination of references to the preceding generation engine technology of the turbojet and the add ...
. This core is capable of powering turboprops of up to . The AE 2100 is a two-shaft design, and it was the first to use dual
FADEC A full authority digital engine (or electronics) control (FADEC) is a system consisting of a digital computer, called an "electronic engine controller" (EEC) or " engine control unit" (ECU), and its related accessories that control all aspects of a ...
s (full authority digital engine control) to control both engine and
propeller A propeller (often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon a working flu ...
, allowing both to be adjusted with a single lever. There are four production variants of the engine: the civil AE 2100A, and the military variants which include the AE 2100D2/D2A, AE 2100D3, AE 2100J and AE 2100P. The AE 2100 inherited the
Allison T56 The Allison T56 is an American single-shaft, modular design military turboprop with a 14-stage axial flow compressor driven by a four-stage turbine. It was originally developed by the Allison Engine Company for the Lockheed C-130 Hercules tran ...
's 14-stage
axial compressor An axial compressor is a gas compressor that can continuously pressurize gases. It is a rotating, airfoil-based compressor in which the gas or working fluid principally flows parallel to the axis of rotation, or axially. This differs from other ...
design, but the inlet and the
stator The stator is the stationary part of a rotary system, found in electric generators, electric motors, sirens, mud motors, or biological rotors (such as bacterial flagella or ATP synthase). Energy flows through a stator to or from the rotat ...
for the first five stages have variable blades. The
annular combustor A combustor is a component or area of a gas turbine, ramjet, or scramjet engine where combustion takes place. It is also known as a burner, burner can, combustion chamber or flame holder. In a gas turbine engine, the ''combustor'' or combustion ch ...
has 16 air-blast fuel injection nozzles. The turbine that drives the compressor has two stages, with the first stage using single-crystal blades. A free power turbine with two stages drives the propeller through an inner shaft and a gearbox. The engine has replaceable steel blades and vanes, which are more reliable but heavier than
titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...
. The AE 2100 engine and
gearbox A transmission (also called a gearbox) is a mechanical device invented by Louis Renault (who founded Renault) which uses a gear set—two or more gears working together—to change the speed, direction of rotation, or torque multiplication/r ...
are rated at , but was derated to for the
Saab 2000 The Saab 2000 is a twin-engined high-speed turboprop airliner built by Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab. It is designed to carry 50–58 passengers and able to cruise at a maximum speed of . Production took place in Linköping, Sweden. It ...
,
Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The C-130J is the ...
, and IPTN N-250, respectively. The engine uses six-bladed, all-composite blade Dowty propellers, including the model R381 on the Saab 2000, R414 on the
ShinMaywa US-2 The ShinMaywa US-2 is a large Japanese short takeoff and landing amphibious aircraft that employs boundary layer control technology for enhanced STOL and stall suppression performance. Manufactured by seaplane specialist ShinMaywa (formerly ' ...
, R384 on the IPTN N-250, and R391 on the C-130J military transport and the LM-100J civil-certified version of the C-130J. The gearbox has a reduction ratio of about 14 and a mean time before unscheduled removal (MTBUR) of over 35,000 hours.


Variants and applications

;AE 2100A *
Lockheed P-3 Orion The Lockheed P-3 Orion is a four-engined, turboprop Anti-submarine warfare, anti-submarine and maritime patrol aircraft, maritime surveillance aircraft developed for the United States Navy and introduced in the 1960s. It is based on the Lockheed ...
(testbed) *
Saab 2000 The Saab 2000 is a twin-engined high-speed turboprop airliner built by Swedish aircraft manufacturer Saab. It is designed to carry 50–58 passengers and able to cruise at a maximum speed of . Production took place in Linköping, Sweden. It ...
;AE 2100C * IPTN N-250 (prototype only) ;AE 2100D2A *
Alenia C-27J Spartan The Alenia C-27J Spartan is a military transport aircraft developed and manufactured by Leonardo's Aircraft Division (formerly Alenia Aermacchi until 2016). It is an advanced derivative of the former Alenia Aeronautica's earlier G.222 (C-27 ...
;AE 2100D3 * Lockheed C-130K Hercules (testbed) *
Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules The Lockheed Martin C-130J Super Hercules is an American four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. The C-130J is a comprehensive update of the Lockheed C-130 Hercules, with new engines, flight deck, and other systems. The C-130J is the ...
* Lockheed Martin LM-100J ;AE 2100F : A variant proposed in 1995 and paired with Dowty R394 propellers to retrofit the
Allison T56 The Allison T56 is an American single-shaft, modular design military turboprop with a 14-stage axial flow compressor driven by a four-stage turbine. It was originally developed by the Allison Engine Company for the Lockheed C-130 Hercules tran ...
-powered Lockheed C-130 models E through H and Lockheed L-100-30, at a price after engine/propeller trade-in of USD$11 million per aircraft. ;AE 2100G :A variant offered in 1994 for the proposed ATR 82, a twin-turboprop airliner seating up to 86 passengers and requiring about of power. ;AE 2100H :A variant offered in 1996 for
Dassault Aviation Dassault Aviation SA () is a French Aerospace manufacturer, manufacturer of military aircraft and business jets. It was founded in 1929 by Marcel Dassault, Marcel Bloch as Société des Avions Marcel Bloch (Marcel Bloch Aircraft Company). After ...
's proposed Atlantic Third Generation (ATL3G)
maritime patrol aircraft A maritime patrol aircraft (MPA), also known as a patrol aircraft, maritime reconnaissance aircraft, maritime surveillance aircraft, or by the older American term patrol bomber, is a fixed-wing aircraft designed to operate for long durations over ...
(MPA). ;AE 2100J : A hybrid of the AE 2100A and AE 2100D3, sporting the torque-meter and interconnecting struts from the AE 2100A and the gearbox-mounted accessory gearbox from the AE 2100D3; also uses a stronger reduction gearbox, a Dowty six-bladed propeller for higher loads, and modified inlet and bypass section positioning to mitigate seawater ingestion; powers the
ShinMaywa US-2 The ShinMaywa US-2 is a large Japanese short takeoff and landing amphibious aircraft that employs boundary layer control technology for enhanced STOL and stall suppression performance. Manufactured by seaplane specialist ShinMaywa (formerly ' ...
. ;AE 2100P * Saab 2000 AEW&C ;AE 2100SD-7 :A variant proposed in 1994 for the European
Future Large Aircraft The Airbus A400M AtlasNamed after the Greek mythological figure. is a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a tactical airlifter with strategic capabil ...
(which eventually became the
Airbus A400M The Airbus A400M AtlasNamed after the Atlas (mythology), Greek mythological figure. is a European four-engine turboprop military transport aircraft. It was designed by Airbus Military, now Airbus Defence and Space, as a tactical airlifter with ...
), with the required power increase from estimated to cost USD$600 million.


Specifications (AE 2100D3)


See also


References


Bibliography

* * *


External links


AE 2100 product page at rolls-royce.com

Rolls-royce.com

Lockheed Martin C-130J specification booklet
{{USAF gas turbine engines 1990s turboprop engines Rolls-Royce aircraft gas turbine engines