HIGH speed civil Tilt Rotor wind tunnel project (HIGHTRIP)

[hesham]

Hi,

HIGHTRIP is a project co-financed by the European Commission in the frame of Clean Sky 2 (Horizon 2020). Consortium, coordinated by NLR, is composed of four partners. Institute of Aviation will take part in the design activities, whereas companies P.W. Metrol and Szel-Tech in the manufacturing activities together with NLR. NLR will also be responsible for preparation of tooling and measuring equipment as well as for processing of wind tunnel test results, that will be conducted in French institute ONERA. The test model will be designed according to requirements from Leonardo Helicopters.

The goal of the HIGHTRIP project is design, manufacturing and tests of wind tunnel model of new tiltrotor being developed by Leonardo Helicopters in cooperation with Partners under Clean Sky 2.

Project is realized by the Institute of Aviation in the Centre of New Technologies.

HIGH speed civil Tilt Rotor wind tunnel project (HIGHTRIP) - Łukasiewicz Research Network – Institute of Aviation

HIGHTRIP is a project co-financed by the European Commission in the frame of Clean Sky 2 (Horizon 2020). Consortium, coordinated by NLR, is composed of four partners. Institute of Aviation will take part in the design activities, whereas companies P.W. Metrol and Szel-Tech in the manufacturing...

ilot.lukasiewicz.gov.pl

 

[Grey Havoc]

Trying again for a European Army tiltrotor by the back door?

 

[yasotay]

I believe that Leonardo is looking to use one of the remaining AW-609 prototypes to do the initial work up. The intent was to have something on the order of a 20-30 passenger Tilt Rotor to operate across Europe from smaller airports of city centers (good luck with that if the rotor tech does not bring the decibels down a notch or two). If it happens to have a applicable military requirement, well, that would be swell wouldn't it?

 

[Apophenia]

Was it one of the attached-image wind tunnel models that you saw? (L. 2008, R. 2014)

There does seem to be a lot of rebranding around Clean Sky 2. NICETRIP (Novel Innovative Competitive Effective Tilt Rotor Integrated Project) started off as a tilt-wing (tilt-half-wing?) and then morphed into a tilt-rotor with narower-chord CIRA-designed wings as NextGenCTR/NGCTR. The NICETRIP project (2006-2014) now seems to have become HIGHTRIP.

Is the name ERICA (Enhanced Rotorcraft Innovative Concept Achievement) still applied to the airframe design? Either way, the T-tail for ERICA turned into a V-tail, then a very shallow inverted-V tail, and now, I guess, back into a T-Tail.

 

[yasotay]

I will defer to someone else on if the ERICA effort is still ongoing. The effort that I am familiar with is based on the AW609 for a demonstrator, to investigate new aerodynamic properties, like fixed nacelles and "V" tail, while moving forward with initial design on the actual aircraft.

 

[riggerrob]

I hope that their first production example has only 19 seats. That allows them to dispense with cabin crew (stewardess) on short-haul flights. Fewer crew means lower operating costs. Dozens of short-haul transports (DHC-6 Twin Otter, Cessna 208 Caravan, Dornier 228, Cessna 40u Sky Courier, PAC 750 XL, Firecatcher F-45, Beechcraft 1900, etc.) are only certified to carry 19 passengers, even if they can haul heavier weights of cargo.

Certification for flight into known icing is a must during European winters.

I question whether they need to pressurize cabins for short hops. Yes, you need to pressurize cabins to fly directly across the Alps, but most of the rest of Europe is flat enough that they do not need to exceed 10,000 feet above sea level. For example, Norway has plenty of mountains higher than 2 kilometres (7,000') but none higher than 3 kilometres (10,000').

 

[yasotay]

I suspect the cabin pressurization is to allow the (turboprop) tilt rotor aircraft to fly at more efficient altitudes on the longer routes. Even on the short hops I have taken the airliner is usually at 15-2000ft, even for a short cruise segment. MV-22 will fly at higher altitudes with crew on oxygen for long deployment missions. Likewise the CV-22 with all of the passengers on oxygen as well.