Future High Speed Helicopter and next generation rotorcraft

tphuang

tphuang

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Blitzo said:
Well, the reason R6000 is more notable than the others is how mature it looks.
Features like:
- fixed engine tiltrotor (like V280)
- folding rotors and wing assembly from outset
- two forward and one rear landing gear design (more sensible for utility rotorcraft role)
- sensible cabin/fuselage design

It is a design, which if they keep everything the same but scaled up to a 12-15t MTOW rotorcraft (engines being a limiting factor of course), would tick off every box you'd need for a military (including navy) compatible next gen tiltrotor
Click to expand...
that's a pretty big jump for a company currently making delivery drones.

I guess if PLA sees enough progress in this, it may issue some kind RFP for larger next gen tiltrotor. And it will be interesting to see if a civilian company like this can compete against one of the AVIC subsidiaries.
 
Blitzo

Blitzo

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tphuang said:
that's a pretty big jump for a company currently making delivery drones.

I guess if PLA sees enough progress in this, it may issue some kind RFP for larger next gen tiltrotor. And it will be interesting to see if a civilian company like this can compete against one of the AVIC subsidiaries.
Click to expand...

Well, this tiltrotor "drone" (really it should be just called a tiltrotor because it clearly can be manned as well) is already a rather big jump from what they were doing before.

My personal feeling is that the next generation of rotorcraft to succeed Z-20 will be a tiltrotor that looks something like V280 or an enlarged version of R6000.
Whether it's AVIC that develops it, or this company, or someone else, or an amalgamation of them, I have no opinion on. But this R6000 itself shows a very mature concept with all of the fundamentals down, and if they can actually develop it without huge issues then it would have some interesting implications for what the overall state of the PRC rotor industry is at.
 
tphuang

tphuang

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R6000 picked up 1B RMB of order. Not bad.

I was listening to the Xi Yazhou podcast on Zhuhai airshow and he actually really talked about R6000. Saying that the turboshaft engine here is just used for generating electricity and that there are two electric motors that actually drive the propellers.

The entire propulsion has been a mystery so far. I've looked over many of the pages and brochures and haven't seen anywhere say that R6000 uses hybrid technology. It certainly would make sense to use electric motor here since you don't need complicated gearbox and just achieves space savings and improved reliability and efficiency.

People say the engine is AES100, but that's also kept at wraps by United Aircraft.

Xi Yazhou mentioned that the first order is to just get transport version into production. Even the current version has potential military usage like emergency rescue and such. So, this is a very interesting product.
 
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Clark Gap

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tphuang said:
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R6000 picked up 1B RMB of order. Not bad.

I was listening to the Xi Yazhou podcast on Zhuhai airshow and he actually really talked about R6000. Saying that the turboshaft engine here is just used for generating electricity and that there are two electric motors that actually drive the propellers.

The entire propulsion has been a mystery so far. I've looked over many of the pages and brochures and haven't seen anywhere say that R6000 uses hybrid technology. It certainly would make sense to use electric motor here since you don't need complicated gearbox and just achieves space savings and improved reliability and efficiency.

People say the engine is AES100, but that's also kept at wraps by United Aircraft.

Xi Yazhou mentioned that the first order is to just get transport version into production. Even the current version has potential military usage like emergency rescue and such. So, this is a very interesting product.
Click to expand...
Rumors suggest that this order originates from a shell company linked to them.
 
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Jaym

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I also want to know more about the r6000 engine.

But i think a chinook like helicopter would be just as useful or better than a r6000. the chinook model has been in service for this long. it is a testament to its usefulness.
 
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gelgoog

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China has a project to make a heavy helicopter together with the Russians. It is meant to replace the Mi-26 in Russia. So that could be used as a Chinook equivalent. The thing is the engine (PD-8V) development is severely delayed.
 
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Jaym

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isnt mi-26 a higher mtow class than chinook? I figure it would be easier to build the chinese chinook than a chinese mi-26.
 
sunnymaxi

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gelgoog said:
China has a project to make a heavy helicopter together with the Russians. It is meant to replace the Mi-26 in Russia. So that could be used as a Chinook equivalent. The thing is the engine (PD-8V) development is severely delayed.
Click to expand...
Jaym said:
isnt mi-26 a higher mtow class than chinook? I figure it would be easier to build the chinese chinook than a chinese mi-26.
Click to expand...
Sino-Russian heavy lifter helicopter contract signed in 2021 after 13 years of long negotiations.. but looks like Russia is no longer the part of this project. China decided to go alone just like in C929.

Last year in summer, ''AVIC Changhe'' applied for approval for the construction of a heavy-duty helicopter research and production base.

Changfei began to apply for approval for the construction of a heavy-duty helicopter research ...jpg
 
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gelgoog

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They still need an engine. Something like the CJ-500 for the C909 modified to work as a turboshaft.
That would be powerful enough for a twin engine heavy helicopter.

As usual for these kinds of projects the engine is still the bottleneck. These tiltrotor projects show that China has pretty advanced flight control hardware and software.
 
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