One giant step for tilt-rotors
- From: "Andy Tompkins" <AndySTompkins@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 22 Sep 2005 08:22:26 -0700
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/washington/stories/092005dnbustiltrotor.d421ae1.html
Analysts say contract to design big plane reflects Pentagon's
confidence
06:17 AM CDT on Tuesday, September 20, 2005
By RICHARD WHITTLE / The Dallas Morning News
WASHINGTON - The tilt-rotor aircraft, a new way of flying that seemed
near death five years ago after two V-22 Osprey crashes killed 23
Marines, appears to be coming back in a big way - literally.
Days before the Pentagon is expected to approve full production of the
redesigned and retested V-22, Osprey makers Bell Helicopter Textron
Inc. of Fort Worth and Boeing Co. said they have won a contract to
design a huge four-engine tilt-rotor for the military.
The $3.45 million contract, awarded by the Army as director of the
Joint Heavy Lift Program, is small by defense industry standards. And
the Army is awarding similar contracts to four other bidders for the
same purpose, including one to Boeing to design a helicopter.
But the contract award - especially coming from the Army, which has
shown scant interest in tilt-rotors since the 1970s - "is a milestone
on the road to tilt-rotor acceptance," said aerospace analyst Richard
Aboulafia of the Teal Group, a market research firm.
"This hardly decides the issue, but it validates this approach as one
possibility," Mr. Aboulafia reasoned.
The companies winning the contracts have 18 months to design an
aircraft that can maneuver a 40,000-pound combat vehicle within a
radius of 250 miles in temperatures as high as 95 degrees.
"What we're trying to do through this concept design and analysis is
define the art of the possible, the science of the probable and the
design of the affordable," said Bob Hunt, spokesman for the Army
Aviation and Missile Command at Huntsville, Ala.
Bell and Boeing shouldn't have much trouble finishing their work on
time. They have been fiddling with the idea of a four-engine tilt-rotor
for years and were discussing it with the military as long ago as 2001.
They call it the Quad Tiltrotor, and it would be a sort of V-22 on
steroids.
V-22s, which cost $71 million apiece, have two wingtip rotors that
swivel. The rotors are pointed upward to fly like a helicopter and
forward to fly like an airplane.
The Quad Tiltrotor, whose cost is as yet unknown, would have four wings
and four tilting rotors.
The V-22 is built to carry 24 troops or 10 tons of cargo.
The Quad Tiltrotor concept envisions a plane that could carry 20 tons
of cargo or 132 people up to 1,000 miles at 350 miles per hour.
"Basically, it's a fuselage the size of a C-130," Bell spokesman Bob
Leder noted.
The Quad Tiltrotor also would be wide enough to allow a Stryker, the
Army's new wheeled combat vehicle, to drive up its rear ramp and fit
inside comfortably.
Military leaders are putting increasing emphasis on aircraft that can
take off and land like a helicopter, given the likelihood of
contingencies in countries that would bar access to U.S. troops.
The Marines especially want aircraft that can take off from ships.
The Army contract comes at a time when the V-22 program is picking up
momentum.
On Sept. 8 the Pentagon's chief procurement official sent Congress a
letter certifying that the V-22 had met conditions imposed in 2001 that
had to be met before the production rate could be raised beyond 11
Ospreys a year.
That sets the stage for next week's production decision, which is
expected to approve an increase to as many as 48 Ospreys a year from
the current 11 made annually by Boeing and Bell, which does most of its
Osprey work Amarillo.
And on Monday, Bell and Boeing announced that they had delivered the
first CV-22 Osprey, a version outfitted for special operations, to the
Air force Special Operations Command.
The Marine Corps plans to buy 360 MV-22s, as their version is
designated. The Air Force plans to buy 50 CV-22s for special missions
such as inserting commandos behind enemy lines and rescuing downed
pilots.
E-mail rwhittle@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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