Evaluation of system architectures for the Army Aviation Ground Power Unit

Abstract

Ground support equipment is critical to the success of Army Aviation. As the Aviation Ground Power Unit evolves or is replaced, it will be necessary to reduce life cycle costs and improve availability. This thesis explores the requirements and offers potential architectures and component selection to satisfy the Army Aviation Ground Power Unit requirements while increasing value. Using the current system as a baseline, alternatives were compared using performance, mass, envelope, reliability, and life cycle costs. The power plant proved to be the most important component in the architectures examined. Power plant influence on the life cycle cost of the system was the dominant factor among the selection criteria; fuel and power plant maintenance costs were the largest contributors to system life cycle costs. The research concludes that architectures with diesel engine power plants are preferred even though these architectures have an inherent mass risk and require greater interaction between aviation and ground maintenance activities.