Marines Weigh Rotor Fixes On CH-53D Fleet
By Bettina H. Chavanne
The U.S. Marine Corps’ CH-53D Sea Stallion fleet is facing a higher scrap rate on its rotor blades than in the past, and the service is juggling priorities to avoid a gap in capability.
An Improved Rotor Blade (IRB) program will eventually replace D-model blades with those flying on the CH-53E Super Stallion.
Program Manager Capt. Rick Muldoon said the D-blade scrap rate has spiked more than 80 percent.
“We’re in a bit of a tight spot,” he said. “We’re very diligently managing the inventory we have while we accelerate getting the aircraft to fly with the [E-model] blades.”
Flight-testing is anticipated “any day now,” Muldoon said. But with engineering analysis and technical directives remaining, the entire program will not be completed until the end of the year or the start of 2010.
“Dealing with the blades came second” to preparing the CH-53Ds for so-called high-hot operations in Afghanistan, where temperatures and altitudes are pressuring helo performance.
Ten D-model aircraft were re-engined with General Electric’s T-64-GE-416 engines. The Super Stallion was modified with 419 engines, with upgraded fuel controls and a titanium nitride compressor airfoil and improved hot section components (Aerospace DAILY, Nov. 6, 2008).
In the future, the Marines may look at using the new blades to increase the gross weight, Muldoon said. But “there may be too big a price to pay in dynamic components,” he said.
Photo: USMC
