AIRBUS RACER / Clean Sky2 LifeRCraft Demonstrator

Another Racer update from Farnborough... just hit 227 knots with room to spare!

www.flightglobal.com

Racer sprints to target speed within just seven flights

Just seven flights and 9h into its test campaign, Airbus Helicopters Racer technology demonstrator has already beaten its 220kt (407km/h) target speed and opened up 80% of its flight envelope since its 24 April maiden sortie.
www.flightglobal.com www.flightglobal.com

Racer sprints to target speed within just seven flights​

Just seven flights and 9h into its test campaign, Airbus Helicopters' Racer technology demonstrator has already beaten its 220kt (407km/h) target cruise speed and opened up 80% of its flight envelope since its 24 April maiden sortie.

(...) The Racer beat its target speed during a test flight on 21 June, hitting 227kt in level flight, says its test pilot Herve Jammayrac. That milestone was also achieved without fairings installed on its landing gear or a highly aerodynamic main rotor cowling, as such “we believe we have additional margin for faster flight,” he adds. (...) The Racer has also been tested on more dynamic maneuvers, for example flying at a bank angle of 45° at speeds above 200kt.

Test flights are paused for the summer and to allow routine maintenance but will resume in September as the company targets opening up the remainder of the flight envelope. A next step for the programme will be to test the ‘ecomode’ function on its twin Safran Helicopter Engines Aneto-1X powerplants. This will allow one of the engines to be shut down in cruise and then rapidly restarted – within 10s if needed – improving the efficiency of the remaining powerplant, cutting fuel burn.
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Great news for Airbus. Surprisingly aggressive schedule.
 
From Airbus:

The flight test crew consisted of Hervé Jammayrac, Chief Flight Test Pilot, Dominique Fournier, Flight Test Engineer, and Christophe Skorlic, Test Flight Engineer. The next phase of flight testing will focus on single engine operations and finalise the flight envelope.
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www.airbus.com

Airbus Racer speeds past 400 km/h

Racer, Airbus' high-speed helicopter demonstrator, has reached its fast cruise speed target of 407 km/h (220 kts).
www.airbus.com www.airbus.com
 
www.spacedaily.com

Airbus Racer demonstrator surpasses speed milestone of 420 km/h

London, UK (SPX) Jul 24, 2024 - Airbus's Racer high-speed helicopter demonstrator, part of the European Research Clean Sky 2 project, has successfully achieved its fast cruise speed target of 407 km/h (220 kts). On June 21, less t
www.spacedaily.com
Or just a shade under 261 miles per hour.
 
yasotay said:
Probably figuring out how to deal with vibratory loads at high speed. Even with a dual speed transmission, all of the whirly bits, likely induce some undesired vibration frequency issues.

So guesses a crayon level aero engineer.
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Active vibration controls, like the EH101.
 
The Racer teams were on vacation in August and there was also a scheduled maintenance period to install the remaining drag reduction features (low drag rotor hub fairing, aka project LATTE and landing gear doors aka project ANGELA) with flight testing projected to resume in September.

LATTE low drag rotor hub: https://www.clean-aviation.eu/media/news/smooth-latte-streamlines-racers-airflow

ANGELA landing gear doors: https://www.researchgate.net/public...osite_Door_for_High_Speed_Compound_Rotorcraft

Vibration should not be a problem since the main rotor is unloaded at speed. In fact the X3 had no vibration control equipment whatsoever (neither active controls or passive dampeners) yet all the pilots who flew it reported a very smooth ride. Same should go with Racer.
 
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P.S. Racer should be able to fly almost 50 knots faster (vs. 227 knots achieved in June on the 7th test flight) according to what Airbus said at Farnborough… so 270-275 knots?

That would make it much faster than previously stated… potentially fast enough to compete directly with a tilt rotor.
 
While I have no doubt that Racer will make mid-200 knots, will it be as efficient as a turboprop airplane? With the same range?
 
Whatever you think of the end-result for that rotor fairing, paying half a million euros for that is flabbergasting. What happens if the rotor config is slightly altered, you break the bank again?
 
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Indeed, tilt rotor. A turboprop airplane that can take off, fly, and land like a helicopter.
 
TomcatViP said:
Whatever you think of the end-result for that rotor fairing, paying half a million euros for that is flabbergasting. What happens if the rotor config is slightly altered, you break the bank again?
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A six year engineering program developing a completely new rotor hub fairing, with all the attendant aerodynamic and structural testing involved for less than half a million bucks.

Doesn't sound like that much money to me, especially now they know what not to do. But it's Airbus, so obviously it's a waste of money, amirite?
 
They haven´t flown with the fairing yet!

Yes, 0,5M$ is a high price to pay for such study in that part of Europe for, basically, a CAD-CFD study with a bit of shop hours.
 
My point was that there were still parts of the rotor hub outside the fairing. Whatever that link between blades is should be inside the fairing, not exposed outside!
 
The blades still have to be able to pivot up and down, if you partially enclosed that you would be creating small gaps that high speed air was being forced into by centrifugal rotation. The dampeners are exposed as they will be moving and are inside the stable air pocket.

urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20200129113633643-0725:S0001924018001720:S0001924018001720_fig12g.jpeg

aerospace-08-00066-g021.png
 
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