[Criminal Number 18F]

General Fields is talking about an improved Osprey, the Quad Tiltrotor. Army Aviation has already decided that they want the biggest copter on the planet.

A long range, high speed, VTOL convertiplane can probably be done better with winged-rotodyne than with tilt-rotor technology, however. But the military and the contractors are deeply committed to the tilt-rotor: the most expensive, least reliable technology.

Here is info on Bell-Boeing's improved Osprey, the QTR:

• Press Release on DARPA funding

• "Russian Aviation" page's overview (good)

• A good article by the AIAA's Mike Hirschberg (one of the most knowledgable guys on VTOL history and tech) on what's up with Bell/Boeing.

The Rotodyne concept:

• The CarterCopter heliplane transport
• Heliplane Transport (2nd link) - and there are more on the site.
• The Groen Brothers GyroLifter is a conversion of a C-130 into a rotodyne.

This article compares a few of these technologies. I haven't read it, just found it in a search.

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[I_dmc]

The Rotodyne concept is very interesting. A friend and I have talked often of our love of helicopters and both decided that a gyrocopter would be preferred. Far safer. Although there are few gyrocopters that can take off vertically, a takeoff run of 50' isn't hard to accomplish.