PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Project Zero - AgustaWestland Revolutionary demonstrator revealed :)
Old 29th Jun 2013, 15:24
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vstol
 
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Dave, you are correct. For an aircraft to have efficient, long endurance hover capabilities, it needs a much larger disk area. Tiltrotors and tiltwings sacrifice hover efficiency for higher cruise speeds. There have been a number of studies of variable diameter tiltrotors; however the additional complexity and cost (on top of the already significant increases from a conventional helicopter) are showstoppers ... at least with today's technology.

Again, Project Zero is a "Technology Incubator" (tesbed), not a product. Although they have an artistic rendering of what an operational manned version might look like, it is currently not intended to ever be developed into a "real" program.
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