Tilt Rotor Aircraft Since 1955

D

delft

Brigadier
We are mixing tilt rotor and tilt wing. If we are to continue to do so the name of this thread should be adjusted.

OT
Flying boats want to have a high wing loading to improve cruising speed and be able to take off and land in more or less heavy seas. This means take off and landing at high lift coefficient and possibly using powered lift in addition. Until now that has meant using complex wing flaps but using a tilt wing that would also tilt the direction of the propeller shafts is a serious possibility. You can't then use the wing tip floats we are used to but the alternative, sponsons, have been used with many Dornier 'boats and also the famous Boeing 314.
Clearly these are not relevant to this thread even when the name would be changed.
 
kwaigonegin

kwaigonegin

Colonel
Jeff Head said:
It is interesting because Bell has been in the thick of this for the entire time with various designs. And they have steadily brought the ball forward.

The Osprey will be the most successful Tilt-rotor ever, and they are now piggy backing on that success...improving it...and I expect the new tilt-rotor aircraft they bring out (starting with V-280) are going to be just that much more successful.

As to the V-22, it is not done yet. And we will document this on that specific thread...but I expect we will see increasing numbers and increasing variants of that aircraft.
Click to expand...

The Ospreys are very good capable transports now and I am really glad it has finally gotten to where it is now because that bird has cost way too much both in gold and the blood of many good men (more than any single aircraft should have the right to) to get where it is today.

I hope newer variants are more reliable though. Most ground crews and aviators alike still complain about the engine TBOs with the Ospreys but at least they are safe decent aircraft nowadays
 
D

delft

Brigadier
There is a different category of tilt wing aircraft : STOL aircraft. Indeed the first of them wasn't even a STOL aircraft but an "ordinary" passenger aircraft, the Blohm und Voss BV144 which flew in France just after WWII and was killed by the superabundance of the DC-3 in its many versions.
Let's look at some power/weight ratios, in kW/kg:
V/STOL ................V-22 ............0.43
Helicopter ..............Mi-26 ..........0.34
Passenger aircraft ..ATR-72 .......0.16
An aircraft similar to an ordinary aircraft but with twice the power and a variable incidence would need a much shorter runway for take off and landing and can do much of the work the V-22 was used for in Afghanistan at a very much lower cost. It is no option for US that want a lot of things that a STOL aircraft cannot provide but for China it would be useful, especially at high airfields as in Tibet. Use a contra rotating propeller as large as possible and a short wing with large tip devices.
 
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Jeff Head

Jeff Head

General
Registered Member
Great video of testing by NASA of the XC-142A from 1968 to 1970.

Too bad they never built this aircraft in numbers.

They go through all types of tests in this video.

 
D

delft

Brigadier
Jeff Head said:
Great video of testing by NASA of the XC-142A from 1968 to 1970.

Too bad they never built this aircraft in numbers.

They go through all types of tests in this video.

Click to expand...
The ancestors of V-22 were a failed project at Weser Flugzeugbau in 1944 and ten years later the Bell XV-3 before at last the Bell XV-15 in the late '70's showed the time for this concept had come. It might be time to revisit the tilt wing V/STOL concept, although my preference is the STOL tilt wing.
 
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