DARPA’s new X-76
- mrDmrTmrJ - 22237 sekunder sedanTo be clear, this is not a power-point program but a continuation of a long-standing design work with Bell.
Two articles that cover this in depth are: 1. Revised Fold-Away Rotor Aircraft Concepts Emerge From Special Operations X-Plane Program. December 2024: https://www.twz.com/air/revised-fold-away-rotor-aircraft-con...
2. Bell’s Plan To Finally Realize A Rotorcraft That Flies Like A Jet But Hovers Like A Helicopter. September 2021: https://www.twz.com/41997/bells-plan-to-finally-realize-a-ro...
The second article covers decades of prior wind tunnel testing on the folding rotor concept.
- sega_sai - 1237 sekunder sedanThe speed of a jet, the freedom of a helicopter, so we can bomb your schools more efficiently.
- dmbche - 18811 sekunder sedanDesign remings me of something...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accidents_and_incidents_involv...
- PowerElectronix - 24300 sekunder sedanIt looks like a maintenance nightmare with those clutches to decouple the blades and the mechanisms to have them folded during cruising. Does it even improve substantially in anh metric over the V280 to put money into it?
- reactordev - 4176 sekunder sedan“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads”.
The Osprey is amazing, can’t wait to see what the X-76 can do.
- porphyra - 23581 sekunder sedanCool, I guess this should be able to hover in much more "austere" environments than the F-35B STOVL and the Harrier Jet. Tiltrotor with folding rotor blades sounds very mechanically complex and challenging though.
- einpoklum - 2006 sekunder sedanAnd the US will use it to invade your country and kidnap your president if s/he doesn't do what Uncle Sam tells him to.
- rozab - 8454 sekunder sedanIt's cool they actually still commission concept paintings like this
- ceejayoz - 24005 sekunder sedanSo it's an Osprey with a jet in the back?
- kuprel - 19815 sekunder sedanFrom the image it doesn't look balanced for VTOL when the propellors are vertical. Also are the jets enabled during VTOL?
- brk - 14414 sekunder sedanI don't understand the purpose of the Xenon taillight.
- 0xWTF - 9073 sekunder sedanSo ... we're going to try even harder to put humans in harm's way?
- mikkupikku - 15407 sekunder sedanWhy won't they adopt one of Sikorsky's compound helicopters already? They're beautiful and elegant solutions to this problem.
- bilsbie - 21643 sekunder sedanSo it has jet engines that blades unfold and attach to during takeoff and landing? Why not always use the blades?
- ocdtrekkie - 16679 sekunder sedanI'm confident with the stellar service and safety record of the V-22 that an even more complex tiltrotor will be a standout success for the military.
- bilsbie - 21683 sekunder sedanI’d go for simplicity and do a tail lander.
- dash2 - 24684 sekunder sedan“ With SPRINT, we're not just building an X-plane; we're building options”. Found the guy who couldn’t be bothered to write his own press release…
- idontwantthis - 23148 sekunder sedanIsn't this need already met by the Bell V280 that the army already selected for it's Blackhawk replacement? What is the big innovation they are going for here?
- tamimio - 13154 sekunder sedanI think the blades are added there for deception, most likely it won’t have blades.
- phplovesong - 21895 sekunder sedanThe swedish gripen can do mach2 (2300km/h) and does not need a traditional runway (500 meters of something "flat enough" will do). I assume its way cheaper than something like this.
- rluna828 - 20613 sekunder sedanI wonder is Iran would have gone different if we had captured the Ayatollah instead of killing him. A stealth drop ship like this would have allowed that to happen. The reason why regimes are more likely to negotiate when you capture their leaders is because you might release them. (not a good day for the usurper.)
- greatgib - 21591 sekunder sedanI can't access darpa.mil. Was it slashdotted because of the article being posted here, or now it is unavailable outside of US?
- HumblyTossed - 21139 sekunder sedanHmmm... that just looks like problems. It's a lot of mechanical parts that always have to work correctly.
- thatmf - 22690 sekunder sedan[flagged]
- crimsoneer - 20834 sekunder sedanSomeone has played the new Deus Ex games
- sandworm101 - 18802 sekunder sedanDifferent engines for different phases of flight? It has been tried many times and never really works. Such craft can be made to fly, but never well. The answer has to come from using one set to power all phases.
Id be interested in seeing a turboprop that can transition to a turbofan/jet once the prop is folded away. The f-35 was a step in this direction.
- trelliumD - 20122 sekunder sedanthat already exists in the form of Saab Gripen :)
- radicalethics - 19827 sekunder sedanI wonder what the motivation behind this is. Tactically, why ever show your latest weapon? What is the strategic purpose of this? It's like if I message my opponent in SC2 and tell them exactly what I'm going to tech to. That's ... insane right? Why would anyone do that?
Nördnytt! 🤓