Bell Eagle Eye
The Bell Eagle Eye ( German: Eagle Eye ) is called an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV ) tiltrotor aircraft with vertical takeoff and landing capability ( VTOL), also VUAV or VT- UAV.
Development
The Eagle Eye program was funded through the first twelve years of Bell. Early 90s began the development of a Konzeptdemonstrators: The TR911X. Is 7/8 as large as the final version. The airframe is made of composite materials and was originally designed and built by Scaled Composites. 1992 they built that are each driven by an Allison 250 -C20 turbine shaft two demonstration aircraft. The engine is in the middle of the hull. About shafts and gears, the drive power is transmitted to the two attached to the wingtips, pivotal rotor nacelles ( tiltrotor concept). The maximum take-off weight in the vertical launch is 1020 kg ( 2250 lbs).
The first flight ( helicopter mode) of the TR911X was in November 1992 at the Bell Helicopter Textron Incorporation ( BHTI ) plant in Dallas, Texas. In spring 1993, was successfully completed at the test site Yuma Proving Grounds ( YPG ) next to the hover and the horizontal flight. 1998 showed the U.S. government renewed interest in the Eagle Eye. This resulted in a two-stage flight test program. Phase 1, which included land-based flight tests, was carried out until April 1998. Shortly thereafter, the phase began 2 were carried out at the sea-based flight tests. The first prototype was destroyed in an accident, the second demonstrator then led the rest of the test program to a successful conclusion.
These successes led to the inclusion in the Deepwater program in 2002. During the summer of the same year the U.S. Coast Guard ordered the VUAV. Known as the TR916 variant is to a top speed of 200 knots have (370 km / h), and an operating time of 5.5 hours and a payload of 200 pounds (90 kg). The aircraft should be ready for use in 2006. Only after the United States Marine Corps was planning to buy the Eagle Eyes for evaluation purposes in Coast Guard configuration, Bell decided to build a prototype in full size. The TR918 as designated Eagle Eye is powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PW200/55-Wellenleistungstriebwerk. The 3000 -pound TR918 is identical to 95 % with the TR916. The first hover flight took place on 26 January 2006. On 5 April 2006, the plane crashed in a balance trial and was rebuilt.
In summer 2004, Bell built relationships with Sagem in France and Rheinmetall Defence in Germany to sell variants of the Eagle Eyes on European governments. Bell proposes to make the airframe available. The European partners are the payloads and other modifications. Bell then leads through the system integration.
Technical data ( TR918 )
- Length: 5.56 m (18 ft 3 in )
- Wingspan: including rotors: 7.37 m (24 ft 2 in )
- Without rotors: 4.32 m