NASA’s New 10-Engine Drone Is Half Chopper, Half Plane | Hacker News Reader

NASA’s New 10-Engine Drone Is Half Chopper, Half Plane

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30 pointssamaysharma6 comments

All day I can watch the V-22 Osprey tiltrotors come in in VTOL mode and land at the Pentagon. They seem even more common than transport helicopters. Now that the early crash-kinks are worked out, they're a truly amazing aircraft. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_Boeing_V-22_Osprey

See also the similarly-configured LEAPTech model: http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/aviation/nasas-...

That one doesn't do VTOL but there are apparently nontrivial efficiency gains from that configuration even without tilting the wings. If you could get enough efficiency gains from the reduced wing loading to offset the weight of the wing tilting apparatus you could effectively get VTOL 'for free' (maybe, I don't know jack about aerodynamics).

Looks a bit...inefficient? At least compared to regular helicopters, and I assume it doesn't go much faster than a helicopter going by its design. But at least its bigger than any existing helicopter, so there's that.

More inefficient at vtol, but much more efficient at forward flight (wings are remarkably efficient at generating lift, compared to rotors). Specifically, more efficient in terms of effective range and carrying capacity.

I believe the range and speed are the assets of the V-22 compared to similar size helicopters.

http://helicopters.axlegeeks.com/compare/18-24/Sikorsky-CH-5...

As I understand it the main drawback of the V-22 is the drag effect of the "larger" blades in airplane mode. So I assume that NASA is testing tilt-rotor aircraft with more engines with smaller blades in hopes of increasing the range and speed over current tilt-rotor aircraft.

It isn't bigger on the inside or capable of lifting more. But it goes faster, and further (though that is a combination of more fuel and slightly better mileage). It will be useful we use more smaller, lighter vechiles or autonomous pack drones. I don't think it will be dropping MRAPs or 40 Marines anywhere anytime soon though. I guess it reflects a change of the overall military to smaller, more mobile forces.

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