Rostec Develops Hybrid Engine Demonstrator for Helicopters, Drones

Rostec’s United Engine Corporation has created a 100 kW hybrid power plant (HPU) demonstrator that can be used in advanced aircraft, including light multi-purpose helicopters and drones.

During the first tests, the correctness of the adopted technical solutions was confirmed.

The GSU demonstrator, which is being developed by specialists from the St. Petersburg enterprise UEC-Klimov, consists of a power unit (a gas turbine engine and an electric generator), an automatic control system and a number of key electrical units.

“A hybrid power plant is one of the most promising projects in the aircraft industry. The scope of its application is drones, air taxis, light multi-purpose helicopters and aircraft, business aviation. Such a power plant will improve the flight performance of aircraft and improve flight safety, as well as create aircraft of a new architecture. Tests of the GSU-100 have confirmed that we are moving in the right direction,” said Oleg Yevtushenko, Executive Director of Rostec.

During the tests, the specialists also debugged the interaction of the HPU elements, ensured automatic operation in the main configurations - electric, turboelectric and hybrid.

“A significant result of the work is the creation of a digital distributed automatic control system for a GCS demonstrator with double redundancy. The ACS provides automatic control, monitoring and diagnostics of the power plant, its systems and elements, as well as information exchange with the automated control system for the technological process of testing, which imitates the onboard control system,” said Mikhail Shemet, Deputy Director of Advanced Programs at JSC UEC-Klimov. 

The electrical elements of the demonstrator are characterized by high specific parameters that are not inferior to advanced analogues.