11 High Speed VTOL companies selected by USAF

an elusive dream of the aviation industry is an aircraft that has the versatility of a helicopter when it comes to takeoff landing and hover while also having the maximum forward speed of a fixed-wing Business Jet note that for most helicopters a speed of 200 knots is the limit the U.S Air Force in their quest for finding a replacement for their now aging vetoed craft specifically the v22 Osprey have started the high-speed veto challenge they have recently selected 11 companies that are potential candidates for producing their future Fleet of aircraft and these will be covered in this video the high-speed vitroll aircraft need to achieve a minimum speed of 400 knots as set in the challenge most of the selected aircraft by the U.S Air Force are unconventional in their design and we will explore the technology behind these aircraft but first let's have a look at the background that led to the challenge vertical takeoff and Landing aircraft have been a keen pursuit of the aviation industry from the beginning the advantages of these aircraft are numerous but the main reason is the ability to travel point to point not requiring the need of large Landing strips in the early days we told came in the shape of gyrocopters but unfortunately they were pushed aside as higher speed and more versatile machines became available in the form of helicopters for military applications in particular high-speed and high range feet holes hold great importance for troop deployment equipment delivery and evacuation the last unconventional aircraft developed that somewhat met challenging requirements was the Bell v22 Osprey the Osprey is a tilt-roated aircraft that has the ability to deliver over 9 tons of cargo it can reach speeds of over 305 knots but despite its impressive numbers the aircraft still has its disadvantages the Osprey is not only difficult to operate and maintain but also has a huge cost associated with its production the production costs are considerably greater than for helicopters with an equivalent payload capability more specifically its cost is about twice as great when compared to the ch53e heavy duty helicopter which has a greater payload and an ability to carry heavy equipment than the v22 an osprey unit costs around 60 million to produce while an equivalent helicopter is just 35 million it has to be mentioned though that the ch53e has a maximum speed of 170 knots with this information the reasons for the U.S Air Force interest in high-speed veto can be understood with the beginning of the electric Aviation age there has been unprecedented Innovation activity that hasn't been witnessed since the post-war the U.S Air Force is therefore incentivizing the startups for realizing high-speed vetalls that may come from out of the box design and would help in replacing the Osprey so without further Ado here are 11 aircraft companies that have been shortlisted first is Horizon aircraft their machine The Cabaret X5 is a Sleek cannot Wing design that has a patented fan in the wing system the Cavalier X5 is a pure lift and cruise design with 16 lift fans embedded in the wings and a single Pusher propeller at the back the neat Wing design splits right down the middle the leading and the trailing edges of the wing move apart to reveal the lift fans for retool operation and then close and lock shut when it's time to cruise the second is the American aerospace engineering and their aircraft diverser which is a six rotor tilt-wing aircraft four of the routers are placed on the main wing while two are present on the rear horizontal stabilizer the propulsion system will be a hybrid electric or all electric not much is known about the aircraft as the details have been kept a secret the aircraft will have a ballistic parachute to land safely in case of an emergency it can also land on runways using its wings next we have Continuum dynamics that are designing their aircraft based on a technology that is called the vdtr or the variable diameter tilt Rotor at a cursory glance their aircraft looks like the Osprey but on a closer inspection one can node a very clever feature of the design during hover the plates fully extend when cruises achieved the blades can be retracted to 70 percent of the extended length the vdtr is a Swarovski concept that was aimed at improving the Tilt rotors hover and cruise Performance jet Opera are also among those who have been shortlisted by the U.S Air Force the not drop Garmin will work with jet Opera to design an airframe for the high-speed vital demonstrator that will integrate the fluidic propulsion systems propulsers jet operator's selection for the high-speed vetoed program Builds on the two Air Force small business technology transfer contracts awarded to them in March 2021 for work on fluidic propulsion system transcend air a boston-based developer of high-speed veto aircraft will develop the v500 Catamount the cat amount is a militarized version of transcend civil VY 400 high-speed veto which the company is developing for City to City VIP Travel it features three rotors one fixed rotor is at detail while the other two are mounted on a tilt ring the v500 will use the powerful GE t901 turbo shaft engine allowing it to reach Cruise speed of 435 knots and combat radius of up to 720 Miles transcendair said that the v500 will take just 15 minutes to dash 100 nautical miles which would increase the air through recovery rates by up to 70 percent the sixth aircraft manufacturer backed by the U.S Air Force is the wealthy systems Aerospace the conceptual Guardian hoverjet is a wing body aircraft with four fans in the wings for we told it is designed to have a maximum takeoff weight of 7258 kilograms and a useful load of 907 kilograms the Guardians 2 Pratt and Whitney PW 545c turbofans will allow it to reach speeds of up to 390 knots and fly for up to 15 hours using maximum fuel it is streamlined still the design that can be operated in aircraft hovercraft and amphibious modes it must be pointed out though that with such small fans it would require an extremely high amount of energy to attain lift also on the list is the psst aircraft corporation which will work on developing its pa1459 high-speed vetoed concept air vehicle for the challenge a digital rendering of the pa-1459 shows an aircraft with two aft-mounted turbofan engines with vectoring exhaust and two tilting duct propellers for vertical lift all four can provide Vector thrust through 90 degrees for vertical or super short takeoff and Landing operations as well as high speed forward flight the low drag fuselage of the pa1459 is designed to achieve high speeds required to meet the challenge next we have jaunt air Mobility who are known for the Rosa and electrically powered gyrodyne jaunt has one of the safest aircraft design courtesy of a huge rotor that acts like a parachute in case of an emergency landing for the high-speed vetrol challenge they will produce two conceptual designs one of them being the mav55 these aircraft will incorporate John's patented slow rotor compound technology which slows the helicopter's main rotor speed to allow for higher forward speed according to jaunt this will result in a lift track ratio five times better than that of a helicopter while this aircraft does not have a small footprint but it can carry up to 12 people and has a maximum range of 1610 miles aircraft Corporation well the makers of the Osprey have also been shortlisted as they have the most experience in developing real high-speed veto aircraft it seemed a Natural Choice the concept aircraft they have submitted are similar to The Osprey but also different in many ways initial systems will be designed with a split propulsion two independent propulsion systems one for vitol and one for high-speed Crews underpinning this system is the company's folding rotor Hardware technology and digital flight control systems that will enable transition from turboprop to Jet modes Bell have already demonstrated a full-scale prototype of its fold away rotor technology one that it developed based on a digital design the remaining two companies that make up the 11 are vertigo arrow for their propulsion system and Whisper arrow for their low noise propulsers so we hope you would have learned a few things about upcoming Aviation Technology what is your favorite and which one do you think has the most potential do let us know in the comment section to get our discussion going and with this the video is concluded thank you for your attention

Channel: Electric Aviation

Views: 73,414

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Id: dFhFJpSONFc

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 30 2022