(41) Helicopter Powerplant Selection

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An extract from Powerplant Selection for Conceptual Helicopter Design, Timothy Joseph Casey (CPT USAR), Naval Postgraduate School, Master's Thesis, JUN 1983, 126 pages

"ABSTRACT
A method of optimizing the selection of a powerplant based upon engine and fuel weight is developed for use in a conceptual helicopter design course. Historical data is analyzed to verify and modify existing formulae used to estimate engine performance and engine installation weight. Computational programs for use on a hand-held computer and the IBM 3033 are developed to predict analytically engine fuel flow characteristics and to optimize engine selection.
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APPENDIX C: FUEL FLOW AND WEIGHT COMPUTATION USING THE
HP-41C … 36
…
APPENDIX E: HELICOPTER POWER CALCULATIONS FOR THE
HP-41C … 86
…
I. INTRODUCTION
A. BACKGROUND
…
The purpose of this study is to develop a process for selecting a powerplant which would best meet preliminary design specifications for a helicopter [Ref. 1]. This process has to be straight-forward enough to be used in an initial design course by graduate students who are not helicopter experts. From an engineering standpoint, initial design of a helicopter to meet given mission and physical specifications focuses upon performance, fuel economy, and weight as primary selection criteria. Those criteria are, therefore, emphasized here.
…
B. OBJECTIVES …
4. Development of programs to optimize engine selection using either a hand-held calculator (HP-41C) or the IBM 3033 computer (FORTRAN).
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APPENDIX C
FUEL FLOW AND WEIGHT COMPUTATION USING THE HP-41C
This appendix contains the programs developed for use with the HP-41C programmable calculator. Two main programs were written:
1. FUELFL
2. WEIGHT
Both programs are designed to accept direct user input of required rotor power or to accept a user specified forward velocity and calculate total rotor power required using the program "POWER" in Appendix E. "POWER" was developed to enable rapid calculation of total power required at any forward velocity (or hover) for use in the above programs as well as for calculation of maximum endurance velocity and maximum range velocity (Appendix E)."

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