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Enabling technologies for a centre-line tiltrotor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 January 2016

B. Burrage
B. Burrage*
Affiliation:
Rotorcraft Operations, Oxfordshire, UK
*
bob.burrage@ntlworld.com
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Abstract

The success of the MV-22 Osprey has created the opportunity for a new design of gunship, tailored to the task of escorting it, an opportunity identified by many. Existing and emerging rotorcraft technology does not appear to have the complete capability, so this centre-line tiltrotor approach is aimed specifically at the escort duty.

The mission is taken to be escorting the MV-22 throughout a land assault (Marine Corps), to provide cover while the MV-22 is on the ground at the landing zone, and to still have useful capacity for diversions. To meet this task this Escort concept stays with the same core physics of tilting rotors plus fixed wings of the Osprey, but re-configured for gunship duties. The rotors are removed from the wing tips to mount them on the aircraft centre-line as inter-meshing rotors tilting back one-at-a-time, to act as pusher props in the aeroplane mode. The merits and concerns of this approach are discussed.

The study first reviews present tiltrotor technology and how that may develop. It then reviews what may be achievable from the centre-line tiltrotor configuration, the targets needed in key design parameters and design sensitivities, defining what the enabling technologies must achieve for the Escort. In hover, key areas are rotor disk loading and figure of merit, and also the rotor blockage caused by the fuselage and wings. In winged flight, the proprotor propulsive efficiency and the aircraft lift-over-drag are key, and fundamental to the feasibility of any tiltrotor concept, there is the all important transition process.

At this conceptual stage of the Escort, the transition process stands out as the dominant risk, and one that touches on all the others, so it was decided to build and flight test a model. The flight test programme plans are described and initial flight results reported.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 117 , Issue 1190 , April 2013 , pp. 389 - 414
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2013 

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