Status Report: DARPA/NASA Convertible Turbofan/Turboshaft Engine Program

NASA-Lewis Research Center and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are jointly funding a program to demonstrate the characteristics of a convertible turbofan-turboshaft engine. Such an engine would be capable of powering a high speed rotorcraft in vertical flight and in horizontal flight up to approximately .85 Mach number. The engine used in this program is a modification of the TF34-GE-400 engine. Testing of the convertible TF34 engine will be carried out at the Lewis Research Center, proceeded by a factory checkout at the Contractor’s facility in Lynn, Massachusetts. This paper provides a report of status to-date in the program which was initiated on May 13, 1981 and is to proceed for 39 months to August, 1984. Engine checkout at Lynn occurred in February of 1983 with testing at Lewis Research Center scheduled to begin on May, 1983.