Dual-mode Dragonfly completes first flight Boeing's canard rotor/wing (CRW) concept demonstrator, dubbed the X-50A Dragonfly, completed its first flight on the eve of Dubai 2003, raising the prospect of a futuristic aerial vehicle capable of being configured for manned or unmanned flight.
The aircraft, designed to fly in both fixed and rotary-wing configurations, is being developed jointly by Boeing's Phantom Works and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). It achieved an 80sec hover flight at the US Army's proving ground in Yuma, Arizona.
The vertical take-off and landing kicked off a 12-15 flight test programme, which Boeing says it expects to complete by the end of January.
Invention
Speaking at the show, Roger Krone, Boeing's senior vice-president army systems, says: "We have a single prototype and we are proceeding cautiously. Because of the nature of the programme this is very much a discovery and invention process."
Boeing says the aircraft will combine fixed and rotary wing flight in a way never achieved before.
During rotary wing flight the engine's exhaust is diverted by a reaction drive system through the rotors to exit via small nozzles in the rotor tips.
Remote control
As forward speed increases and the canard and tail pick up the aerodynamic load of the aircraft, the exhaust is gradually diverted until it flows completely through a nozzle at the back of the aircraft, allowing the rotor to lock into place for fixed-wing flight.
The Dragonfly is 17.7ft (5.4m) long, 6.5ft high and weighs 1,460lb (660kg). It is powered by a conventional turbofan engine and the reaction drive system eliminates the need for a traditional mechanical transmission, drive train and anti-torque device.
Dragonfly's test flights will be conducted under the remote control of a pilot in a ground station cockpit. The aircraft will gradually perform more extensive hover flights, then a forward flight in rotary-wing mode and finally conversion to a fixed-wing flight and back again for a rotary-wing landing.
Source: Flight Daily News
