Airbus’s X3 Prototype Uses Three Rotors to Break Airspeed Records

In the chimerical reality of vertical - takeoff - and - landing ( VTOL ) aircraft , the most rough-cut intercrossed one finds are tiltrotor planes with helicopter - like abilities . But the X3 epitome from Airbus necessitate the opposite approach . It transformed a traditional chopper into a high - speed turboprop .

There ’s always been a note between aeroplane and helicopters in that planes can fly far and faster but need landing strips , while choppers are slower with shorter ranges but can set down just about anywhere . However there is a strange midway ground between these two platforms , one that mix the capability of each either throughtilting wing , tilting rotors , or in the eccentric of the X3 , tilt propellers .

The X3 prototype was developed between 2010 and 2013 as part of the company ’s exploit to win rotorcraft technology and capabilities . Specifically , the demonstrator was built to show that gamy - speed whirlybird flight could be achieved by slow up the rotor stop number by 15 percent ( which avoids drag from the sword wind ) and employing winglets to yield a majority of the helicopter ’s lift .

base on the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin , the X3 featured a elementary 5 - sword 41 metrical foot rotor driven by a pair of 2270 HP Rolls - Royce turboshaft locomotive engine as well as two smaller 5 - steel propellers driven via a tractor gear from the main engines affixed to the front of the chopper ’s winglets . What the X3 lack , however , was the arse rotor coil you ’d recover on conventional whirlybirds . alternatively , Airbus locomotive engineer forestall the torsion of the main rotor by giving the starboard propeller a higher rotational speed than the port propeller .

This design proved immediately successful . The X3 made its maiden flight in 2010 . By 2011 it had demonstrated a speed of 232 knots ( 267 mph ) using less than 80 percentage of its usable power , and in 2013 snap off the unofficial speed record for non - jet - assisted compound helicopter previously hold by the Sikorsky X2 when it hit 255 knots ( 293 mph ) in level flight last June .

While the demonstrator itself has been retired and is now being inducted into the honored Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace , Airbus hop to further rise the technology demonstrated aboard the X3 into a variety of war machine , SAR , and commercial platforms by the remainder of the ten . [ Airbus – Wiki ]

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