Mono Tilt Rotor Design Underway
(from verti-flight news)

Under a study contract from the US Army Aviation Advanced Technology Directorate (AATD), Baldwin Technology Company, the Army Research Laboratory, the University of Maryland, and Eagle Aviation Technologies are building a wind tunnel model of the Baldwin Mono Tilt Rotor (MTR). Successful tunnel trials with the unpowered parametric research model this winter could support first flight of a 10,000 lb XVU2 scaled demonstrator for the Office of Naval Research in three years. “If everything lined up, I think we could do it,” says MTR developer Douglas Baldwin.

The articulated Mono Tilt Rotor has a single large diameter coaxial rotor that lifts the aircraft vertically and transitions to a tractor turboprop for cruising flight. Aerodynamic forces move wing panels and tail surfaces from vertical in the hover to horizontal in cruising flight without hydraulic actuators. Mr. Baldwin believes such a vehicle could achieve double the cruising speed of helicopters with one-third the weight, and one-third the acquisition and operating costs.

Two study contracts from the ONR in 2003 and 2004 showed the potential value of the concept to achieve long range with higher-than-helicopter speeds. The MTR architecture is scaleable to different applications. The parametric research model will have a wing span of 80 inches to fit the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel at the University of Maryland. The MTR scaled demonstrator is the subject of an AATD funded preliminary design effort. It is sized for a 4,000 pound load carried at 200 kt cruising speed and 20,000 feet, with 700 nm range or 250nm radius of action. ONR hopes to compare the MTR with the Sikorsky X2 coaxial rigid rotor helicopter and other advanced concepts to support its sea-basing concepts.

You go first. I don't even wanna be in the same county as that widow-maker when it fires up!