At the MAKS air show in Zhukovsky Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces (VKS) Colonel General Viktor Bondarev reported that in Russia work is in full swing to create a wide variety of rotary-wing aircraft in the interests of the Ministry of Defense. These include traditional transport, attack, specialized, as well as unmanned helicopters operating in a “flock”. Which, however, was not much news. A real sensation in other words by Bondarev: for the first time it was announced that our country intends to soon acquire fundamentally new machines - tiltrotors.
Moreover, two companies are engaged in convertiplanes at once. In Zhukovsky, at MAKS, an experimental tiltrotor aircraft of the Russian Helicopters holding was presented, which is subsequently expected to be brought to the specifications of a specific combat vehicle with a take-off weight of up to two tons. Well, the Kronstadt group of companies intends to create a family of heavy unmanned tiltrotors.
The task is very difficult, since a tiltrotor is an extremely capricious machine to operate, requiring not only significant financial costs, but also lengthy development to create. It is probably for this reason that only one series of serial tiltrotors are currently flying in the world - the Bell V-22 Osprey. The vehicles were adopted by the US Marine Corps and Navy in 2005. The Americans have been creating them for more than three decades. During the tests, 30 people died.
At the same time, each such “bird” costs overseas, like a modern fighter - 115 million dollars. And this despite the fact that the V-22 is produced in transport, search and rescue and anti-submarine modifications. That is, their tiltrotors are “not burdened” with expensive fire control equipment; they can only defend themselves by shooting off heat traps; they do not have an electronic warfare system.
The MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor is presented at the Air Tattoo exhibition (Photo: Marina Lystseva/TASS)
So what kind of car is this? A tiltrotor combines the qualities of a helicopter (during takeoff and landing) and an airplane with tractor propellers (during horizontal flight). Its undoubted advantage is the ability to operate without runways and at the same time surpass helicopters in flight range and payload.
Until recently, it was believed that a tiltrotor had serious speed advantages over a helicopter. However, now helicopter manufacturers are already reaching the 500 km/h bar, which is not much inferior to the “planes with propellers” that are replacing them.
Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, which have both “helicopter” takeoff and “airplane” horizontal flight, are extremely difficult to develop. Because when transitioning from vertical climb to horizontal flight, the aircraft becomes unstable. Which is fraught with accidents. But in a tiltrotor, such instability is much higher. Because a VTOL aircraft has different engines that provide lift and flight. In a tiltrotor, the same engines first pull the car upward and then push it forward. The transition to horizontal flight is carried out as a result of rotating the propeller axis by 90 degrees.
It should be noted that the idea of creating tiltrotors has been around the world for a long time. Beginning in the 1930s, designers in Russia, Europe and America seized upon the idea of creating a “helicopter-plane” with great enthusiasm. But for a long time the matter did not progress beyond the construction of unworkable models. At the same time, designers invented a wide variety of schemes for converting an aircraft from vertical to horizontal flight. The most realistic of them were two - a vertical scheme and a horizontal one.
The first is a conventional aircraft mounted on the tail. The propeller at the top of the plane creates lift during takeoff. Having risen to a sufficient altitude, the aircraft is transferred to a horizontal position and performs normal flight in “airplane” mode. This scheme has its advantages. For example, the wings of a tiltrotor do not interfere with the air flow during takeoff.
But the disadvantages of such machines are much more significant. The main one is that in two modes the pilot needs to occupy two different positions inside the cockpit, turning the seat 90 degrees. Accordingly, the controls should shift by the same angle. In addition, during takeoff the pilot has little visibility, unless, of course, he is inside a glass ball.
In 1954, Convair began testing a tiltrotor of this type, commissioned by the US Navy, called the XYF-1 Pogo. Its flying qualities were excellent. Turboprop engine with a power of 5850 hp. With. allowed to reach a maximum speed of 980 km/h, and the ascent speed was 3200 m/min. But two years later the project was closed due to the fact that the customers came to the conclusion that an ordinary pilot was not able to fly this machine. Since experienced testers unanimously stated that during takeoff and landing, the tiltrotor turns into a “damn stupa”, making a sequence of crazy and unpredictable leaps.
The horizontal scheme turned out to be workable, although also very difficult to implement. It is a machine whose screws turn 90 degrees. When taking off, the tiltrotor operates like a regular helicopter, and after gaining the required altitude, the pilot turns the propellers, which become pulling rather than lifting.
In this case, there are several options for transferring the propellers to horizontal flight mode. The nacelles, in which engines with propellers are installed, rotate. Or completely wings. Or the tips of the wings on which the engines with propellers are located.
Today it’s a shame to realize that the world’s first tiltrotor launched into mass production could have been not an American, but a Soviet machine. KB Mil began creating the Mi-30 in 1972. According to the project, the carrying capacity of this flying “miracle-yudo” was up to 5 tons. The Mi-30 was supposed to transport up to 32 paratroopers over a distance of 800 km, the maximum speed was 600 km/h. The production of prototypes and their testing was planned for the period from 1986 to 1995. However, during “perestroika” the country first ran out of money. And soon the country itself “ended.”
The American V-22 is made according to the same design as the Mi-30. Two turboprop engines are located at the ends of the wing. And they can rotate 98 degrees. The result was a very solid machine, with a load capacity of up to 9 tons.
Most of the convertiplanes purchased by the Pentagon are used on universal landing ships, as well as on ships of other types. In total, more than 250 vehicles of three modifications have already been built in the United States.
Here are the main flight and tactical characteristics of the Bell V-22 Osprey:
— length 19 m;
— height 6.7 m;
— wing area 36 sq. m;
— three-blade propeller diameter 11.6 m;
— maximum take-off weight 25800 kg;
— power plant — 2 TVD with a power of 2×4600 kW;
— maximum speed 565 km/h;
— rate of climb 16 m/s;
— practical ceiling 7900 m;
— combat radius 670 km;
— practical range 2600 km;
— crew of 3 people;
— payload — 24 paratroopers or up to 9 tons of cargo in the cabin.
American tiltrotor Bell-Boeing CV-22B (Photo: Zuma Press/TASS)
Our country realized quite late that it was far behind the United States in this area. The Russian Helicopters holding company took up the problem only in 2015. Moreover, on a proactive basis. At the same time, at first the calculation was for customers from the “rich” oil and gas sector, who were offered an effective machine for monitoring, reconnaissance and other actions in remote regions (most often called the Far North), where there are no airfields.
And now, right at MAKS, the military, it turns out, also paid attention to this project. It seems that their motives are approximately the same as with the recent announcement of the start of development at the Yakovlev Design Bureau of an aircraft with vertical take-off and landing, which the Russian Ministry of Defense somehow suddenly needed. It turns out that both the VTOL aircraft and the tiltrotor are intended, first of all, for operation in the Russian Navy on promising ships that will play the role of Russian light aircraft carriers.
It is interesting that the tiltrotor in the BP holding is not being developed by the Mil Design Bureau or the Kamov Design Bureau, which have been specializing in a related field for many decades - helicopters. The design bureau VR Technologies, which is part of the holding and was founded relatively recently - in 2014, is concerned about Russian convertoplanes. And, therefore, not having much experience in this area.
The co-executor of the development is the Aerob company, a resident of the space cluster of the Skolkovo innovation park.
The pace of work is both impressive and baffling. Last year, a few months after the start of development, an unmanned prototype made its first flight, on which technologies are being tested and the features of the controlled flight of a tiltrotor are being studied. There are three stages ahead. First, a 300-kilogram unmanned prototype must be built. Then there will be a 2-ton drone that will be ready for production and operation. In the end, it will come to a manned vehicle, which, according to the developers, will not be inferior to the “American” jointly developed by Bell and Boeing.
As they say, wait and see. But there are fears that not only we, but also our children will not see the implementation of these plans through the efforts of two newborn companies.
UAV of the “convertiplane” design before testing / Photo: minpromtorg.gov.ru
Specialists from FSUE TsAGI have completed the next cycle of work on an unmanned aerial vehicle of the “convertiplane” design.
This promising aircraft combines the advantages of a helicopter (the ability to take off and land vertically) and an airplane (speed, range and flight duration). It is designed to monitor the underlying surface and solve transport problems. The drone is capable of being based on unequipped small sites and in the future can be used in various industries.
“The experiments have shown that, in general, the aerodynamic configuration is characterized by an expectedly high level of aerodynamic perfection for this class of aircraft”
The basis of an aircraft of this class is a straight wing of moderate aspect ratio. It is composed of thick profiles and was developed by Oleg Kudryavtsev, a junior researcher at the department of aerodynamics of aircraft and rockets at TsAGI, and Evgeniy Kovalenko, the chief designer of INNOTECH OJSC.
The experiments carried out showed that, in general, the aerodynamic configuration is characterized by an expectedly high level of aerodynamic perfection for this class of aircraft. “This became possible thanks to an integrated approach to the design of the wing and the layout as a whole, and the correct choice of the main criteria. There is still a lot of work ahead in the field of dynamics, stability and controllability, ensuring the strength and aeroelasticity of the structure,” said Alexander Kornushenko, head of the sector of the aircraft and missile aerodynamics department of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise TsAGI, head of work on the aerodynamics of the unmanned aerial vehicle.
In 2016, it is planned to continue testing the unmanned vehicle in experimental facilities of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise TsAGI. The research will make it possible to obtain a data bank of aerodynamic characteristics, test numerical calculation methods, and identify the features of flow around the configuration in a wide range of angles of attack in airplane and helicopter modes, the press service of the Ministry of Industry and Trade reported.
Technical information
Unmanned aerial reconnaissance complex ERA-50 and ERA-100
The first prototype of the unmanned tiltrotor "Era-50" made its first flight on February 12, 2014. By April, several test flights were carried out, their completion is scheduled for the end of March 2014. The Era-50 UAV has a launch weight of about 5 kg with a target load weight of up to 500 grams, the interlocutor specified.
UAV type "Era" / Photo: arsenal-otechestva.ru
The New Technologies company completed all the necessary three-dimensional computer models of the parts. Next, information about the configuration of the parts was loaded into a 3D printer, which produced the parts of the future drone. Inexpensive but at the same time durable ABS plastic was chosen as the main material for the body and wings.
Factory tests of the Era-50 unmanned aerial reconnaissance, surveillance and monitoring system with vertical take-off and landing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) were planned to be completed at the end of March 2014, said Eldar Razroev, chief designer of New Technologies LLC. He explained that the Era-50 tiltrotor has four electric motors, which are located at the ends of the wing consoles and drive four two-blade propellers. All four propeller-motor groups are rotary.
The control mode itself is automatic, but in transient modes it is now optionally controlled, that is, it allows intervention in the control system. After completion of factory tests, a stage of improvements will follow. It is expected that in the coming months the device will be finalized and will practically become a “commodity,” said the chief designer.
According to E. Razroev, the company is developing two types of tiltrotors - “Era-50” weighing 5 kg and “Era-100” weighing 20 kg.
The Era-100 tiltrotor was demonstrated at the Integrated Security exhibition in Moscow in the fall of 2013. The tiltrotor is equipped with four electric motors with a power of 2700 W each. They are located at the ends of the consoles and drive four two-blade propellers.
Since the UAV is built according to the tiltrotor design, all four propeller-engine groups are designed to rotate on the wing.
The longest flight duration and range are achieved at a cruising speed of 150 km/h. Flight testing of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) of the new aerodynamic tiltrotor design “Era-50” is planned to begin in February 2015, said Eduard Razroev, General Director of Aerox LLC.
According to him, the first few UAVs have now been put into production, and their testing will begin in February. The drones themselves, like aircraft, have already been tested and are in production as serial ones, but will be developed using an automatic control and navigation system. So far, the first prototypes of the Era-50 have been tested “on the handle,” that is, in manual control mode.
“The task is to “teach” the drone to fly on autopilot according to the program,” the source said. The production of new UAVs has been mastered in Kazan, where the company’s design bureau is located. Some of the technological equipment for the production of Era-50 is produced under contracts at several other enterprises.
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Next, about the Russian tiltrotor drone RHV-35 presented by the Russian Helicopters concern. Its weight is 35 kg, it can rise to a height of up to two kilometers and carry a payload of up to 6 kg. The drone's flight range in automatic mode is about 450 km. The drone is driven by a hybrid power plant, allowing it to accelerate to 140 km/h.
Now the MAI is working on reducing the weight of the drone and increasing its carrying capacity, but most importantly, the design of the device has already been approved and tested in the laboratory. “Pterodactyl” will be able to stay in the air much longer than other drones and carry more equipment due to the fact that it will not carry batteries on board.
Another advantage of the tethered control system is complete security against information interception.
Another feature of the “Pterodactyl” is that it is made according to the design of a tiltrotor - an aircraft whose propellers can turn along with the wings. This scheme allows you to combine the advantages of an airplane and a helicopter in one machine. Due to this, the drone can develop a high enough speed in the air to move with the tank at full speed, while it is able to rise into the air from a small area, including directly from the tank’s hull.
The idea of a reconnaissance unmanned vehicle controlled via a flexible cable is not new - such a solution was first implemented in the late 1960s on the West German unmanned experimental helicopter Dornier Do-32K. It was controlled via a cable and received fuel through it, military expert Oleg Zheltonozhko tells Izvestia. - Currently, the cable interface is used on the Israeli Hovermast copter, but it is not used as part of a combat vehicle.
As Oleg Zheltonozhko says, systems where a reconnaissance drone becomes directly part of a combat vehicle do not yet exist.
The use of a lightweight UAV equipped with a thermal imager and radar system as an external surveillance system seems to be a logical solution specifically for promising armored vehicles, the range of which exceeds the visibility range of on-board detection equipment, says the expert. - For example, the main gun of the Armata is capable of hitting a target at a distance of 8 km, and the recognition range of an enemy tank through the sighting channel is limited to 5 km. In addition, thanks to the presence of the Pterodactyl, the tank will be able to reveal the situation on the battlefield, remaining in cover or hiding behind buildings or uneven terrain.
According to Zheltonozhko, equipping armored vehicles with external surveillance systems capable of observing the terrain at least at a distance of 10 km will provide Armata with an undeniable advantage over any of the existing opponents.
What's the idea anyway? Does it have potential? Why is it not developing in the world?
The Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel General Viktor Bondarev, said that the country is developing convertiplanes and heavy drones in the interests of the military. According to the general, in the future, drones will be able to be integrated into a unified control system, which will significantly reduce the cost of training operators of these aircraft.
“The unmanned topic is developing. Be that as it may, it is more expensive to train a pilot than to install a good autopilot on a plane. If now an operator can control one or two drones, then over time, with the development of the ground component, he will be able to control five or even ten devices, so it will be even cheaper,” Bondarev said.
In addition, he noted that unmanned aircraft in the future will be able to solve strategic strike missions due to their stealth and greater combat stability compared to manned aircraft.
Convertiplanes are aircraft that can perform vertical landing and takeoff, like helicopters, without a runway, and horizontal flight, like conventional airplanes. Today, the most common type of tiltrotor is the American Bell V-22 Osprey. In horizontal flight it can reach speeds of up to 463 km/h, and in vertical flight – up to 185 km/h. The Osprey is powered by two Rolls-Royce T406 engines. This is the only tiltrotor used for military purposes.
Candidate of Technical Sciences and independent expert in the aerospace and defense industry Vadim Lukashevich, in a conversation with RT, said that the creation of a tiltrotor is a useful initiative due to the high combat performance of such an aircraft. However, the expert recalled that the creation of the Bell V-22 Osprey in the USA was fraught with great difficulties.
“Today, tiltrotors are in service only with the American army, being a symbiosis of an airplane and a helicopter. In normal flight, it is a propeller-driven aircraft that can perform vertical takeoff and landing. In terms of its combat capabilities, this device is somewhere in the middle between a traditional airplane and a helicopter. This is a very good car. In America, it took a very long time to create and was tested very hard. There were serious disasters in which many people died. This is a serious engineering problem, and if we solve it, it will be very good,” the expert explained.
The creation of heavy drones for the needs of the Russian Aerospace Forces, according to Lukashevich, is also positive news.
“Heavy drones have a large mass, fuel capacity, flight range and load, be it combat or reconnaissance systems. These are more flexible devices with wide capabilities. From the point of view of increasing the defense capability of our aerospace forces, this is also positive information,” the expert noted.
Lukashevich emphasized that only the military themselves can now know about the timing of joining the troops, and there is no information on this topic in the expert community yet.
“There is nothing complicated in creating a heavy drone for our aviation, but creating a tiltrotor is a rather serious and fundamentally new task. The Americans had a fairly large program worth about $70 billion, which was on the verge of closure due to fears that such a device was conceptually impossible. In this regard, it’s easier for us: now we know that this problem can be solved, and time will tell the rest,” the expert concluded.
The Russian Helicopters holding company previously announced that it would present to visitors and participants of the MAKS-2017 air show a prototype of the experimental unmanned tiltrotor VRT30.
“In this promising tiltrotor it is planned to use the latest superconductivity technology developed by the SuperOx company, which will reduce the weight of the power plant, units of the electricity generating system and power supply systems,” emphasized the head of the holding, Andrey Boginsky.
It is noted that from the end of 2018 the device is planned to be sent into mass production.
Osprey V-22 tiltrotors began to be widely used in the mid-2000s, so outside the expert community these devices are still viewed with distrust. Thus, in 2013, residents of the island of Okinawa protested against the deployment there of Osprey tiltrotors, which Japanese residents consider unsafe. Then the inhabitants of the island motivated their protests by saying that tiltrotors were dangerous for the population, because this type of weapon had not yet proven its reliability. The population of Okinawa feared that the new type of American aircraft could fall on residential areas.
In 2012, two Ospreys crashed in Florida and Morocco. In 2014, an MV-22 Osprey began losing altitude shortly after takeoff from the deck of the aircraft carrier Makin Island. Two members of the plane's crew jumped out, after which the pilot regained control of the aircraft and managed to land safely on the aircraft carrier. One of those who left the plane's cockpit was rescued, the second went missing. In 2015, a tiltrotor with 22 people on board made a hard landing during a training exercise at Bellows Air Force Base in Hawaii. Then two Marines were killed and 12 injured.
An unmanned tiltrotor developed by the Russian design bureau VR-Technologies (part of the Russian Helicopters holding company) made its first flight. Air tests took place in Moscow at the Skolkovo Innovation Center. This was reported by the press service of the Russian Helicopters holding company.
The project of a promising multi-purpose unmanned aircraft was presented by the holding in August 2015 as part of the MAKS air show. Its goal is to create a family of high-speed multi-role rotorcraft. The project is designed for three stages, including the creation of demonstration samples and a full-size tiltrotor model. The main task at the first stage is to determine critical technologies and the efficiency of layout schemes, as well as to find innovative solutions for the further creation of a whole family of tiltrotors with different maximum take-off weights.
“During this time, we have achieved significant results and have already begun the first stage of flight tests,” says Alexander Okhonko, General Director of VR-Technology.
According to TASS, the tiltrotor is equipped with a hybrid power plant, which is planned to provide speeds of up to 500 kilometers per hour.
Note that this is not the only development of domestic aircraft designers. In 2013, the Moscow company New Technologies presented a 1.3-meter-long tiltrotor prototype at the Ministry of Defense Innovation Day. In the middle part, two pairs of meter-long wings with a span of about one meter are attached to the fuselage, with the front one moved to the bottom of the fuselage, and the rear one to the top. The UAV's power plant consists of four electric motors. The take-off weight of the tiltrotor drone is 18 kilograms. The device, according to the stated data, is capable of taking off vertically and, having deployed the motors with propellers, accelerate in horizontal flight to 234 kilometers per hour.
Reference
Convertiplanes are a special class of rotary-wing equipment, made according to an airplane or helicopter design. These aircraft provide the ability to perform vertical takeoff and landing in confined spaces while transporting passengers or cargo at higher speeds and over greater distances than traditional helicopters.
Meanwhile, according to the Internet portal defense-update.com, in Singapore at the international exhibition "Singapore Airshow 2016", an unmanned vehicle capable of flying and then diving under water and continuing to move at shallow depths was presented.
It has already successfully passed initial tests in the air and underwater. The drone is driven by an electric motor and has three propellers: one for air travel and two for underwater swimming. The battery charge lasts for 15 minutes of flight at a speed of 83 kilometers per hour and three hours of movement under water at a speed of three knots, that is, 5-6 kilometers per hour. The drone weighs 25 kilograms, and the payload is three kilograms.
It should be noted that the creations of Singaporean engineers are not unique. Unmanned aerial vehicles capable of flying and swimming have long been of interest to the military departments of many countries. For example, in November last year, a video of the American GTQ-Cormorant quadcopter, capable of taking off from under water, appeared on YouTube. Its creation is funded by the US Navy's Office of Naval Research.
Another drone, Flimmer, created by American scientists, can fly, swim and dive. His task is to monitor submarines. In flight, the drone uses wings, and when entering the water, they fold and the device “grows” fins. Underwater, Flimmer moves like a sea turtle. Of course, it is not so fast, but it is almost silent and very maneuverable, which is fundamentally important when you are pursuing an enemy.
The device can not only dive, but also land on the surface of the water, as well as take off from it. Seabirds, in particular cormorants, were chosen as prototypes for creating the Flimmer drone.
In addition, there was a presentation of “disposable” attack unmanned vehicles developed by the Israeli aviation concern Israel Aerospace Industries.
Three drones were brought to the attention of the military: Rotem L, Harpy NG and Green Dragon. The creators called their line of kamikaze drones “wandering munitions” that explode on contact with a target.
It should be noted that the idea of using kamikaze drones dates back to 2011, when the US Army armed itself with disposable hybrid cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles called Switchblades. Equipped with an electric motor, the drone has all the functions of reconnaissance drones. It can fly both in remote pilot mode and autonomously. When a target is detected, the device dives at it, detonating a two-kilogram warhead embedded in the body.
By the way
According to foreign media reports, Iranian-made kamikaze drones are actively used in Syria by government forces. They are unmanned aerial vehicles that land in a given location and explode like a booby trap. At least six cases of their use have been recorded near the city of Maarat al-Numan, in western Syria.
And the Russian company "Tiber" presented the "Geodesy-V" complex with an unmanned automatic take-off and landing helicopter TB-29V, as part of the military-scientific conference "Robotization of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation", which was held on February 10 in the military-patriotic park of culture and recreation Russian Armed Forces "Patriot". The new purpose that the unmanned helicopter received is the detection and tracking of drones violating state borders.
This small unmanned helicopter is equipped with a multifunctional video platform with surveillance cameras of various ranges: thermal, daylight and ultraviolet. The helicopter’s task is to detect a target, track it, and transmit the exact coordinates of the intruder drone’s route to a ground control station.
Due to the fact that an unmanned helicopter has a wide range of speeds - from 0 km/h at the moment of hovering to a maximum speed of 150 km/h, the aircraft is capable of holding and accompanying an “illegal” drone throughout the entire route, even being at a distance from it. distance of 1000 meters.
The Geodesy-V helicopter complex includes the TB-29V unmanned aerial vehicle and the command module of the unmanned aerial system. The maximum take-off weight of the helicopter is 19.6 kg, the fuselage length is 1.6 meters, the diameter of the main rotor is 1.865 meters.
The practical range of an unmanned helicopter is 540 km, the maximum static ceiling point is an altitude of 5000 meters, the flight time is 6 hours with a payload of 1 kilogram at an altitude of 1000 meters.
