Endwall contouring has been widely studied as an effective measure to improve aerodynamic performance by reducing secondary flow strength. The effects of endwall contouring with discrete holes and an upstream purge slot for a high turning (127") airfoil passage under transonic conditions are investigated. The total pressure loss and secondary flow field were measured for two endwall geometries. The non-axisymmetric endwall was developed through an optimization study [1] to minimize secondary losses and is compared to a baseline planar endwall. The blade inlet span increased by 13 degrees with respect to the inlet in order to match engine representative inlet/exit Mach number loading in a HP turbine.  The experiments were performed in a quasi-2D linear cascade with measurements at design exit Mach number 0.88 and incidence angle. Four cases were analyzed for each endwall -- the effect of slot presence (with/without coolant) and the effect of discrete holes (with/without coolant) without slot injection. The coolant to mainstream mass flow ratio was set at 1.0% and 0.25% for upstream purge slot and discrete holes, respectively.  Aerodynamic loss coefficient is calculated with the measured exit total pressure at 0.1 Cax downstream of the blade trailing edge. CFD studies were conducted in compliment. The aero-optimized endwall yielded lower losses than baseline without the presence of the slot. However, in presence of the slot, losses increased due to formation of additional vortices. For both endwall geometries, results reveal that the slot has increased losses, while the addition of coolant further influences secondary flow development. / Master of Science