5/1/2023 0 Comments Swing it like a helicopter![]() ![]() Intended to take off vertically like a helicopter, the craft's rigid rotors could be stopped in mid-flight to act as X-shaped wings to provide additional lift during forward flight, as well as having more conventional wings. In October 1976, Lockheed Corporation won a DARPA contract to develop a large-scale rotor to test the concept. Taylor Naval Ship Research and Development Center under DARPA funding. The X-Wing circulation control rotor concept was developed in the mid-1970s by the David W. Rotor Systems Research Aircraft / X-Wing aircraft during a 1987 high speed taxi test In the end, this program did not proceed. Sikorsky proposed fitting a UH-60A main rotor to the RSRA in their proposal, while Hughes Helicopters proposed fitting a Y AH-64A main rotor and Boeing Vertol proposed fitting a YUH-61A OR Model 347 (four-blade CH-47) main rotor. In 1981, NASA and the US Army solicited proposals for fitting a four-bladed main rotor to the RSRA. One notable test performed with the RSRA was the use of the main and tail rotor load measurement system to determine the vertical drag of the airframe. The joint NASA/Army project began in December 1970, first flight on Octowith the first of two aircraft arriving from Sikorsky to NASA on February 11, 1979. The RSRA was a unique pure research aircraft developed to fill the void between design analysis, wind tunnel testing, and flight results of rotor aircraft. This system, when activated, fired explosive bolts that severed the main rotor blades, escape panels were blown off the roof of the aircraft, then the crew was extracted using rockets. Unique among helicopters of its time, it was fitted with a crew emergency extraction system. In addition, it could fly as a fixed-wing aircraft without a main rotor. The RSRA could be fitted with TF34 turbofans and wings to allow compound helicopter configurations to be experimentally investigated at speeds up to 300 knots (560 km/h). The airframe was developed using an existing Sikorsky S-61 main rotor, an S-61 roller gearbox, and a highly modified Sikorsky S-67 airframe. The RSRA was developed to allow the inflight measurement of helicopter rotor characteristics. The Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA) was developed by Sikorsky for NASA and the Army. The Sikorsky S-72 was an experimental compound helicopter developed by helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky Aircraft.ĭesign and development RSRA ![]()
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