Heliplane

Program Manager: Mr. Don Woodbury

Overview

The Heliplane program will design, develop and flight test an air vehicle that combines the vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) and low disk loading characteristics of a helicopter with the speed and efficiency characteristics of a fixed wing aircraft.  The Heliplane demonstrator aircraft will be tailored to a Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR) mission with a 400 mph cruise speed, a 1,000 lb payload, and an unrefueled range of 1,000 miles.  The Heliplane program will conduct a combination of analysis and experiments to develop and demonstrate key enabling technologies.  Once key enabling technologies have been demonstrated, a preliminary design of the Heliplane system will be completed, a test of the rotor system will be conducted to demonstrate that the rotor is stable in high-speed flight, detailed design will be completed, and a Heliplane demonstrator will be fabricated and flight tested.

Last Updated: 02/18/08