Originally Posted by
SplineDrive
...The Airbus Racer or X3 concept is interesting and can achieve high speeds...
I hadn't seen anything about the X3 for a while, so looked it up on Wikipedia (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurocopter_X%C2%B3). It apparently
achieved 255 knots in level flight in 2013, indicated to be an unofficial helicopter speed record. Yet it has already been in a museum since 2014!
I hadn't come across Racer (
Rapid and Cost-Effective Rotorcraft), so looked it up too (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Airbus_RACER ) and now understand it is an evolution from the X3. Wiki reports "
first flight anticipated at the beginning of Q2 in 2022" but that has clearly passed so progress presumably still slowed due to COVID?
The Racer article in turn reminded me of the Piasecki X-49 and Sikorsky X2 as compound helicopters of 'comparable' configuration. The X-49 (and its predecessors) seemed like a mechanically straightforward alternative to any swivelling tail rotor concepts. Is there any future in such an arrangement as opposed to the X3 / Racer configuration?
Finally, is there any future in revisiting the DTNSRDC X-wing concept that had been built and fitted to the S-72 (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sikorsky_S-72), but was never flight tested? It seemed like a radical idea to achieve high speed flight of a rotorcraft at the time. Rotor is only used for take-off then becomes stationary for high-speed forward flight. Not sure how they managed to solve the problem of the aerodynamic loading on the forward swept pair of stationary blades (wings)!