Ever since the Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) concept was first developed in the 1930s, tilt rotor aircraft have been designed for both commercial and military use, but despite all the effort they’re still difficult to engineer.
If there were one project that best symbolizes that difficulty, it would be the V-22 Osprey commissioned by the United States military in 1981. After a development history that included enough disastrous accidents to fill their own Wikipedia page and development costs that ballooned from an initial $2.5 billion to $35.6 billion, the V-22 finally entered service in 2007.
But the dismal past of the tilt-rotor craft may soon be making way for a much more prosperous future, and AgustaWestland hopes to lead the way with their new electrically-powered Project Zero.
Designed and built in fewer than six months Project Zero has taken flight several times since 2011. Using its twin rotors, the craft takes off like a helicopter and then transitions to “traditional” forward flight by turning its rotors 90 degrees.
According to AugustaWestland, Project Zero’s rotors are “driven by advanced electric motors powered by rechargeable batteries; future hybrid solutions have also been investigated using a diesel engine to drive a generator. All of the aircraft control systems, flight control and landing gear actuators are electrically powered, removing the need for any hydraulic system.”
Being an electric craft, Project Zero naturally needs a recharge between flights, but rather than plugging the machine into a wall to recharge its batteries, AugustaWestland’s engineers have come up with a clever solution: the craft’s own rotors can be converted from propellers into windmills. On a breezy day, the batteries can be recharged without the use of any external power source.
Image Courtesy of AugustaWestland