The client challenge
During recent military operations, an engine-manufacturing client had increasingly found themselves and their military assets working in ever harsher terrain and operating environments. This project focused on solving the problems associated with improving the life, performance and availability of such critical assets in the form of many military operations’ strategic workhorse, the all important multi-role helicopter.
Some of the problems of airborne contamination for helicopter engines relate specifically to issues such as:
- Compressor erosion
- Turbine blade glazing
- Turbine blade vibration & fatigue problems
- Blockage of blade cooling passages
The blackswan solution
This project was underpinned using PERFECT, our Systematic Innovation process to structure and understand how we solve complex contradictions. Based on the truism that defining a problem clearly and completely represents 90% of the difficulty in innovation, PERFECT dignifies problem selection with a consistent analytical approach.
The design process from a blank sheet of paper took approximately 6 weeks led by blackswan’s Darrell Mann and a team of five engineers. The full certification process of the engine took a further thirty months to complete.
The client outcome
Since entering service, the redesigned engine has been combat proven and displayed world-leading reliability and dependability in the harshest operating environments. With its unique particle separation, the outcome has resulted in an improvement by a factor of 50 in terms of engine life and reduction in maintenance scheduling. Today, it continues to represent the gold-standard benchmark for engine design.
