Hughes XV-9
The Hughes XV -9 (factory designation Model 385 ) was an experimental helicopter of the U.S. producer Hughes Tool Company, Aircraft Division from the beginning of the 1960s. For the drive was a then new system of blade tip drive, described by Hughes as hot -cycle drive used. The only built prototype was given the military designation XV -9A and the USAF / Army serial number 64-15107.
History
Hughes designed, built and flew the XV- 9 on the basis of a research contract with the U.S. Army. The first stage of the development program was in 1962 in a 60-hour test run of the proposed rotor design. Then, the entire drive part (turbines, and the rotor arm body ) was subjected to a 15-hour test run of the test in the spring of 1964, before the construction was built into the hull.
Flight testing began in November 1964 and the first phase was completed after 15 hours of flight in February 1965. Further flight tests were conducted at Edwards Air Force Base. Flight testing was completed in August 1965 and returned the machine to Hughes.
Construction
The drive was carried out by two General Electric YT64 -GE -6 as gas generators, which were housed in nacelles on short high-mounted outriggers on both sides of the fuselage. The hot exhaust gas stream was passed to the yaw axis of the turbine nozzle to the blade tips of the rotor, and three-leaf to a nozzle at the rear of the controller. At the blade tips of the gas jet has been derived by the cascade vanes 90 ° and accelerated almost to the speed of sound.
To keep costs down, was to fall back on already existing components during construction. Thus came the fully glazed cockpit of a Hughes OH -6A and the solid suspension of a Sikorsky CH -34. The hull was a conventional half-shell construction of an aluminum alloy. The control means of the V-tail was supported in low-and VTOL flight by hot gas streams that could be ejected on each side of the rudder sideways. The operation was carried out with the rudder pedals of the pilot.
The three-blade rotor was constructed from a high temperature steel (Rene 41), and had a constant depth of 0.80 m. The leadership of the hot gases was performed between the two beams, cooling air was passed through the front and rear edge of the sheet and blown out of the nozzles.