Piasecki at AHS

yasotay

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Piasecki gets the award for the most concept models at AHS 2010. Good news for them is that they got the go-ahead to go to Phase 2 with the X-49 program. That should allow them to go beyond the NATOPS which they were not allowed to do in Phase 1.
 

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And here are a couple of pictures of the "Pathfinder 4" that Piasecki indicated on a handout is their concept for a medium Joint Multi-Role (JMR). A very clean compound with ~250 knots cruise speed.
 

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:) Yes, just as I wished, on the X-49 Phase II the wings are now located over the cabin.
Is a picture taken from the front available? Well, I bet, that the US SOF are very keen of this.

The fuselage of "Pathfinder 4" looks to me very familiar, just like the Sirkosky X-2 LTH.
 
The resemblance between the PIAC JMR and the X-2 is from the fact that there is a notion that future rotorcraft will need to go faster so the streamlining becomes more a necessity to the designs. The Piasecki JMR will not use the rotor for lift very much in high speed flight (note the length of the wings) while the X-2 will continue to rely on the rotors for lift in forward flight.

As to the front picture of the high speed UH-60 (this is not the X-49 but the proposed production version of the conversion for special operations), I did not manage to get a good picture but it remains a normal UH-60 nose. Of note, although not easy to see there is a third engine instead of an APU to power the tail thruster at high pressure altitude so that the main engines can put all of the power into the main rotor. Also note that the back third of the wing rotates down to reduce downwash effect of the wing and it also assist in ground effect by "cupping " the air under the aircraft. There is an 18 inch plug behind the pilots to allow the aircraft to carry more troops. The only other variation was the standard special ops bird air refueling probe.
 
What's that white short UAV looking thing? An autogyro?
EDIT:
It is.
From 2007:
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/four-fcs-uav-subcontracts-awarded-updated-0928/
Piasecki Aircraft Corp. is entering its Air Guard autogyro UAV. Autogyros are a sort of cross between fixed wing aircraft and helicopters, and are also called gyroplanes or gyrocopters. Piasecki Aircraft Corp’s news release has more details.
 

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