Honeywell secures contract for US Army Chinook fleet

Air October 16, 2020

Honeywell has won a five-year IDIQ (Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity) contract for the repair and overhaul of its T55-GA-714A engines that operate on the US Army’s CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

This contract award will ensure that the U.S. Army’s Chinook fleet has spare engines to sustain its future missions and overall readiness. The engines will be serviced at Honeywell’s new maintenance facility at the company’s Aerospace global headquarters in Phoenix.

“Honeywell remains committed to supporting the T55 engine and the CH-47F Chinook program with improved maintenance practices, expanded repair capacities and engine modernisation improvements that will meet the helicopter’s needs for years to come,” said Dave Marinick, president, Engines & Power Systems. “Honeywell’s unparalleled T55 repair and overhaul facility was designed to provide the highest level of support for the US Army’s needs today and in future missions. Every aspect of the layout and design of this new facility was carefully planned to ensure operational efficiency with US Army mission readiness in mind.”

Completion of the new facility means repair and overhaul work on the T55-GA-714A engine will now be in the same location as new engine production. This move allows the workforce to share resources between both engine lines, for a potential surge output of 20 engines per month that can be delivered to the US Army, foreign military and commercial customers.

“We’ve made substantial improvements to the shop layout and process flow of the T55-GA-714A maintenance lines,” said Lesley King, senior director, ISC Operations, Honeywell Aerospace. “So we can double our capacity in the shop and take advantage of our engineering resources on-site to ensure we are meeting our delivery commitments to the Army.”

As a world leader in heavy lift, the CH-47F Chinook helicopter is used by the US Army to support domestic and foreign operations by hauling troops and cargo all over the world. Since 1961, Honeywell has improved the horsepower of the T55 engine by 133%. Each improvement has decreased the engine’s fuel consumption and lowered the maintenance burden to increase aircraft readiness.

Honeywell is executing one such engine improvement program for the T55, which will increase shaft horsepower from today’s 4,777 to 6,000. This engine enhancement will allow the CH-47F to increase its useful load at higher density altitudes and will further reduce maintenance hours with the introduction of a newly designed compressor and accessory drive gearbox.