Jetline marvel

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JETLINE marvel I January 2015
Black Knight in the Air
First Flight Of The Black Knight
A hybrid truck helicopter designed for military missions. In December, the truck completed driving
tests. This is a drone filming a drone. The Transformer here is unmanned, and the picture comes from an
unmanned quad copter, flying even higher. One of the more modern features of the transformer,
besides being a freaking flying truck, is that pilots can fly it either while sitting inside it, or remotely. For
this first test, it obtained an altitude of less than 10 feet off the ground and was remotely piloted. While
it's still a long way from entering military service, the successful flight and drive tests mean the concept
at least works at a human scale. Its transformation between the two modes is subtle—eight rotors, four
on each side, spring out for takeoff, fold in for driving through tighter streets, and tilt forward in the air
for faster flight.
This Helicopter never flew
reportedly but made the
story in 1983,
Lithuanian Rotorcraft
In the future, the Pentagon may want the Black Knight Transformer (or its smaller sibling, the Panther
Transformer) to carry and retrieve troops from difficult to reach places. Sometimes flying is the better
way to do that, getting the Transformer over canyons and clear of landmines. Once past obstacles, the
Transformer can drive out to where it needs to be, letting troops evacuate their wounded right from the
site of battle. There are other ways to accomplish this, like trucks carried inside V-22 Ospreys, but the
Transformer combines that usefulness into one body, and a remotely pilotable one at that.
Lithuanian
Rotorcraft
Vaineikis RV-5 from
1983
Valunas Va-1, Singleseat
helicopter built
by Y.Valunas in 1984,
Prenai, Lithuania.
Reportedly never
flew