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Radical Dual Tilting Blade Helicopter Design Targets Speeds of Over 270mph

Posted by Soulskill on from the for-all-your-helicopter-racing-needs dept.

Zothecula writes: As one of the contenders in the race to win a $100 billion contract from the U.S. government for the next generation of attack helicopter in the Army's Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program, AVX Aircraft Company has conceived a futuristic machine kitted out with coaxial rotors, ducted fans and a retractable undercarriage that could hit speeds of over 270 mph (435 km/h).

9 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. To be stolen, and hidden in the desert by Gothmolly · · Score: 5, Funny

    And piloted by a young rebel, with a cranky old sidekick as a navigator. They should make this into a TV show.

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    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re: To be stolen, and hidden in the desert by slinches · · Score: 5, Funny

      It's a whoosh up until about Mach 0.9-0.95. After that, it's a boom.

      --
      Knowledge Brings Fear
  2. Eurocopter / Airbus X3 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    While a simpler and more conservative design, a helicopter like this already exists: The Eurocopter (now Airbus) X3.

    Not yet in production but several functioning machines that already reached speeds of 472 km/h.
    Of course this is a civillian design, not military, and has far less transport capacity, but the technology is working already. This is beyond prototype stage and ramped up for commercial prodcution right now.

    Eurocopter also planned to compete in the FVL program, but since the US would have claimed IP in this case, a civilian production would not have been possible without paying licence fees to the US (despite the US not contributing any development ressources or IP).

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    1. Re:Eurocopter / Airbus X3 by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 5, Funny

      While a simpler and more conservative design, a helicopter like this already exists: The Eurocopter (now Airbus) X3.

      Not yet in production but several functioning machines that already reached speeds of 472 km/h.

      Yeah, but we need one that travels in miles per hour.

      --
      Do you have ESP?
  3. redundant aircraft by jcgam69 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The V-22 Osprey performs a similar role for the Navy/Marine Corps. Why develop a new platform that will cost billions of dollars and many years of research and testing? The V-22 can be adapted to this new role much faster and for a lot less.

  4. And it exists too! by honestmonkey · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Not! This is a figment in AVX's collective mind. The real helicopter doesn't move at all except for CGI on a computer monitor. Not to say they couldn't build it but a bit premature to say much about it. "It could reach speeds of a billion light-years per fortnight." Hey, maybe it'll do the Kessel run in 12 parsecs.

    --
    Everything you know is wrong, Just forget the words and sing along.
  5. Works well on Russian helicopters by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The Kamov series have co-axial rotors. The Ka-52 can already hit 240+mph without any ducted fans, and there is also improved manoeuvrability. Tail rotors just waste energy from the engines.

  6. Re:One hundred *billion* dollars? by CrankyFool · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The Comanche program was cancelled after only $7B was spent in development, and before they started mass production. Is $7B a lot of money? Yes. But it's not $100B.

  7. Re:One hundred *billion* dollars? by CrankyFool · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, it's like $12.74B in 2014, at least according to the inflation calculator at http://www.bls.gov/data/inflat... .

    Christ, folks. It's numbers. It should be easy to validate the numbers you use before you randomly vomit them on the interwebz.