The Hillberg Turbine Exec is an American

helicopter A helicopter is a type of rotorcraft in which lift and thrust are supplied by horizontally spinning rotors. This allows the helicopter to take off and land vertically, to hover, and to fly forward, backward and laterally. These attributes ...

turbine engine conversion kit for the piston-engined Rotorway Exec. It was designed and produced by Hillberg Helicopters of

Fountain Valley, California Fountain Valley is a suburban city in Orange County, California. The population was 57,047 at the 2020 census. History The area encompassing Fountain Valley was originally inhabited by the Tongva people. European settlement of the area b ...

. Now out of production, when it was available the kit was supplied for installation by amateur aircraft builders.Purdy, Don: ''AeroCrafter - Homebuilt Aircraft Sourcebook, Fifth Edition'', page 324. BAI Communications, 15 July 1998.

Design and development

The kit was designed specifically for the Rotorway Exec, to convert it to turbine power, under the US ''Experimental - Amateur-built'' aircraft rules. The resulting aircraft features a single main rotor, a two-seats-in

side-by-side configuration Tandem, or in tandem, is an arrangement in which a team of machines, animals or people are lined up one behind another, all facing in the same direction. The original use of the term in English was in ''tandem harness'', which is used for two ...

enclosed cockpit with a windshield, skid-type

landing gear Landing gear is the undercarriage of an aircraft or spacecraft that is used for takeoff or landing. For aircraft it is generally needed for both. It was also formerly called ''alighting gear'' by some manufacturers, such as the Glenn L. Martin ...

and a

Solar T62 The Solar T62 Titan is an American gas turbine engine used mainly as a helicopter auxiliary power unit (APU), ground power generator, turboprop engine or helicopter turboshaft engine. A free power turbine version was developed as the Solar T66. ...

turbo-shaft engine. The T62 was designed as an

auxiliary power unit An auxiliary power unit (APU) is a device on a vehicle that provides energy for functions other than propulsion. They are commonly found on large aircraft and naval ships as well as some large land vehicles. Aircraft APUs generally produce 115& ...

(APU) and used on helicopters such as the

Boeing-Vertol CH-47 Chinook The Boeing CH-47 Chinook is a tandem rotor helicopter developed by American rotorcraft company Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol. The Chinook is a heavy-lift helicopter that is among the heaviest lifting Western helicopters. Its name, Ch ...

and

Boeing-Vertol CH-46A Sea Knight The Boeing Vertol CH-46 Sea Knight is a medium-lift tandem-rotor transport helicopter powered by twin turboshaft engines. It was designed by Vertol and manufactured by Boeing Vertol following Vertol's acquisition by Boeing. Development of th ...

. Due to the light weight of the engine used for the conversion kit, the aircraft's empty weight is reduced and the useful load is increased. The Hillberg Turbine Exec uses airframe components from the Exec and thus the completed aircraft's

fuselage The fuselage (; from the French ''fuselé'' "spindle-shaped") is an aircraft's main body section. It holds crew, passengers, or cargo. In single-engine aircraft, it will usually contain an engine as well, although in some amphibious aircraf ...

is made from

aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...

and steel tubing, plus

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass ( Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass clo ...

for the

cockpit fairing An aircraft fairing is a structure whose primary function is to produce a smooth outline and reduce drag.Crane, Dale: ''Dictionary of Aeronautical Terms, Third Edition'', page 206. Aviation Supplies & Academics Inc, Newcastle Washington, 1997. ...

. Its two-bladed main rotor has a diameter of . The aircraft has an empty weight of and a gross weight of , giving a useful load of . The cabin width is . The Hillberg conversion kit included the T62 engine, reduction gear clutch, tail rotor drive shaft and hangar bearings, main transmission and a new fuel tank.

Operational history

By March 2015 one example had been registered in the United States with the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

Specifications (Turbine Exec)

References

{{Hillberg Helicopters aircraft Turbine Exec 1990s United States sport aircraft 1990s United States helicopters Homebuilt aircraft Single-engined piston helicopters

Design and development

Operational history

Specifications (Turbine Exec)

See also

References