Bell Helicopter is to announce at Farnborough that it has scooped up to $6 million in US government funding to press ahead with studies of a next-generation tiltrotor. The advanced aircraft, dubbed the Quad Tiltrotor, could open up a lucrative market as an alternative to heavylift helicopters and tactical transports.
Bell has been seeking government backing for the past year since drafting the initial concept and now says it could build a prototype as early as 2002. First production deliveries would begin in 2010.The aircraft will be based on the Bell Boeing V-22 military tiltrotor, which is already in development for the US armed forces. Plans call for the use of a much larger fuselage, similar to the Lockheed Martin C130-30 Hercules, mated with the engines, wing, nacelles and prop rotors from the V-22.The result will be an aircraft capable of carrying 120 troops or civilians, three HMMVs, or helicopters employed by US armed forces such as the Boeing AH-64 Apache, the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk, the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche or Bell¹s own UH-1Y and the AH-1Z Cobra attack helicopter.
Initial funding has been awarded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and will be split into three phases. Phase One cash, amounting to $400,000, will centre on discovering exactly what the forces require, using what Bell describes as a "technological road map".
Confirmed Phase Two funding, already confirmed, will involve the construction of a 1/14 scale model of the aircraft capable of hovering, while the crucial third part of the development programme, yet to be secured, would see all this translated into an actual mission-capable airframe. "Phase Three development would involve wind tunnel modelling to provide performance, aero-elastic and loads information," says Bell. Because the Quad Tiltrotor utilises so many existing, qualified components from the V-22 it is considered to be a low-cost, low-risk programme.
It has six times the internal cabin volume of the V-22 to allow carriage of larger and heavier weapons and vehicles. Preliminary designs of the aircraft include wings forward and aft, each having engines and prop rotors mounted to the outboard tips, similar to those found on the V-22.Bell says the Quad concept has attracted a great deal of interest from both the miltary and civil sectors. Potential customers could include the US Marine Corps, which is looking for an advanced rotorcraft to replace both its KC-130 tankers and Sikorsky CH-53E heavylift helicopters.
Source: Flight Daily News
