Piasecki X-49

The Piasecki X - 49A, even Sikorsky YSH -60F, is a flight screwdriver prototype of the U.S. manufacturer Piasecki Aircraft Corporation with such a modified torque balance that this increase flight speed allowed in long distance flight.

Development

As a basis for the development of a Sikorsky UH- serving 60th The research program has been funded since October 2000, the program has started, by the U.S. Navy to U.S. $ 26.1 million. Meanwhile, the program has been forwarded to the U.S. Army. This technique has already been tested during the 1960s by Piasecki with the Piasecki 16H -1, which reached 360 km / h.

In the torque compensation is an encapsulated 5-blade propeller of 2.44 meters in diameter, whose beam direction can be changed ( Vectored Thrust Ducted Propeller VTDP = ). The power that is absorbed by the propeller, is 1,560 kW. Therefore, the drive shaft had to be reinforced. In addition stub wings were used, which relieve the rotor and allow a further increase in speed. Instead of 270 km / h for the pure helicopter 370 km / h are expected in the new configuration. In order not to deteriorate in spite of the additional weight of 725 kg of the plant, the starting performance of the engine compared to the initial model, the APU was replaced by a Rolls -Royce T703 engine that provides additional power only during startup.

During the ducted propeller and its drive units survived a 200 -hour endurance test back in 2004, the first ground tests for vibration analysis have been successfully completed in January 2006. Strong vibrations faced so on to a drive shaft. The project, however, suffers under scarcity of funds.

The first flight took place on 29 June 2007 at Boeing at the Wilmington International Airport near Philadelphia.