XV-15 litho - NASA's History Office

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30 During the late 1960s and early 1970s, Bell’s Stanley (Stan) Martin (chief of advanced design) and Richard (Dick) Spivey (manager of applications engineering) actively promoted the continuation of tilt rotor aircraft research and development to NASA and to the military services research organizations. This effort, coupled with the progress made in related analytical and experimental areas, helped to keep the tilt rotor alive during that period as a contender for future Government-funded development programs. With the loss of Bob Lichten, Ken Wernicke became the lead design engineer for tilt rotor aircraft at Bell. When the RFP for the design of the tilt rotor research aircraft was released by NASA, Bell Vice President for Program Management Charles (Chuck) Rudning assigned Henry (Hank) Smyth as proposal manager and Tommy H. Thomason as his deputy. Ken Wernicke was the chief engineer during the proposal phase. After contract award for the TRRA project, the Bell management team consisted of Hank Smyth, Jr. (program manager) and Tommy Thomason (deputy program manager). Troy Gaffey was the chief technical engineer for the project from 1972 to 1975. In 1975, Hank Smyth was assigned to a major Bell international program and Tommy Thomason took over the top position. His new deputy was Lovette R. Coulter. From 1974 until 1981, Mike Kimbell served as the engineering administrator for the Bell Project Office. Thomason left the project in 1981 to lead the new JVX military transport aircraft project (later called the V-22 Osprey), and Lovette Coulter was appointed as program manager. When Coulter became deputy V-22 program manager in 1984, Ron Reber was assigned as XV-15 program manager. In 1999, after serving in senior management posts at Bell and Rolls Royce Allison, Thomason became vice president of civil programs at Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation under President Dean Borgman. In 1994, the XV-15 test activity at Bell was placed under the technical direction of Colby Nicks. Getting Started Initial activities of the Project Office at Ames focused on the previously described Government-sponsored contractual efforts as well as several in-house activities devoted to tilt rotor technology data base development and validation. With increasing confidence in the ability to design a tilt rotor aircraft free of the problems and limitations encountered with the XV-3, a new agreement for the joint development and operation of tilt rotor proof-of-concept research vehicles at the Ames Research Center was signed on November 1, 1971, by Robert L. Johnson, Assistant Secretary of the Army, R&D, and Roy P. Jackson, NASA Associate Administrator for Advanced Research and Development. This document would be the cornerstone in the development of the proof-of-concept tilt rotor research aircraft project that was about to emerge and it came about through the hard work and dedication of many Army and NASA managers.
As the leader of the V/STOL Project Office, Woody Cook recognized that the tilt rotor would have a niche for military and civil applications between the helicopter (with good hover efficiency, low speed, and short range) and higher disc loading concepts such as the Harrier jet lift VTOL aircraft (with poor hover performance, high speed and longer range). With the critical analytical tools for this concept being honed and validated by the on-going industry and Government work, he began to advocate the development of the proof-of-concept aircraft to management at Ames and NASA Headquarters. Woody’s colleague on the Army side was Paul F. Yaggy, the director of the Army Air Mobility Research and Development Laboratory (AMRDL). Yaggy provided a high level of support for the development of tilt rotor technology by co-funding the research and by sharing in the staffing requirements. While Woody promoted the TRRA project to NASA management, Paul advocated the activity to his command organization, the U.S. Army Materiel Command. Dr. Irving C. Statler was appointed as the director of the Ames Directorate, U.S. Army AMRDL in September 1974 and became an enthusiastic and effective supporter of the tilt rotor research aircraft project. In 1975 the tilt rotor project acquired another important advocate when Dr. Richard (Dick) Carlson became the Director of the Army AMRDL. Project Advocacy By late 1972, the Director of Ames Research Center, Dr. Hans Mark, recognized that the technical “homework” had been done and done well, and that the tilt rotor aircraft was a unique utility that could well serve the civil and military user. Dr. Mark, therefore, strongly advocated continuing development of the tilt rotor aircraft and carried this position to NASA Headquarters. During this time, Langley Research Center, in a NASA/Army activity similar to the joint effort at Ames, had been investigating the rotor systems research aircraft (RSRA). 21 This aircraft was a compound helicopter with a changeable configuration that was flown with and without wings and auxiliary turbofan jet engines. Figure 33 shows the RSRA in flight with the rotors, the wings, and the turbofan engines installed. It was also flown as a fixed-wing turbofan aircraft with the rotor removed. The use of the additional lift and propulsion devices would enable flight research to be conducted on the rotor system and airframe over a broad 21 C. White, Jr., G. W. Condon, “Flight Research Capabilities of the NASA/Army Rotor Systems Research Aircraft,” NASA TM-78522, September 1, 1978. Figure 33. Rotor Systems Research Aircraft (RSRA). (Ames Photograph AC82-0089-17) 31
Page 1:
The History of The XV-15 Tilt Rotor
Page 5: Contents Prologue . . . . . . . . .
Page 9: Dedication The story of the success
Page 13: Foreword The development of tilt ro
Page 17 and 18: List of Figures Figure 1 Leonardo d
Page 19 and 20: Figure 41 Simultaneous static test
Page 21 and 22: Figure A-2 Transcendental Model 2 t
Page 23 and 24: List of Acronyms AARL Army Aeronaut
Page 25: TRENDS Tilt Rotor Engineering Datab
Page 28 and 29: Figure 2. Illustration of vertical
Page 30 and 31: Figure 4. McDonnell XV-1 compound h
Page 32 and 33: Figure 7. Henry Berliner tiltpropel
Page 34 and 35: Top: Figure 9. The Baynes Heliplane
Page 36 and 37: Figure 13. Illustration from the Ha
Page 38 and 39: Figure 17. Bob Lichten, extreme lef
Page 40 and 41: Figure 20. Tiedown tests of the XV-
Page 42 and 43: 16 Research and Engineering), obtai
Page 44 and 45: 18 management continued to show int
Page 46 and 47: 20 Building the Technology Base Aer
Page 48 and 49: Figure 25. Bell 25-ft. diameter pro
Page 50 and 51: Figure 28. Performance tests of 5-f
Page 52 and 53: Figure 31. Bell 25-ft. diameter pro
Page 54 and 55: 28 Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft Pro
Page 58 and 59: 32 range of loading conditions and
Page 60 and 61: 34 The initial projected cost of $4
Page 62 and 63: Figure 35. Illustration of the Boei
Page 64 and 65: Figure 36. 1/5 scale XV-15 model in
Page 66 and 67: 40 under the contract. To accomplis
Page 68 and 69: 42 Aircraft Development The primary
Page 70 and 71: 44 Test stand angle box Test stand
Page 72 and 73: Figure 40. Proprotor response to co
Page 74 and 75: Figure 41. Simultaneous static test
Page 76 and 77: 50 helicopters. For the conversion
Page 78 and 79: 52 Prior to the start of flight ope
Page 80 and 81: Figure 44. Initial Bell tiedown sho
Page 82 and 83: 56 degrees 25 and a brief assessmen
Page 84 and 85: Figure 45. XV-15 in the Ames Resear
Page 86 and 87: 60 NAVAIR managers as a means of de
Page 88 and 89: Figure 46. Government and Bell pers
Page 90 and 91: Figure 49. Tiedown test facility at
Page 92 and 93: 66 Wheel height Top: Figure 51. Met
Page 94 and 95: 68 Symmetric beam mode Antisymmetri
Page 96 and 97: Figure 55. XV-15 during short takeo
Page 98 and 99: Top: Figure 56. Flow visualization
Page 100 and 101: 74 during “degraded” flight con
Page 102 and 103: Figure 59. Hover acoustics tests du
Page 104 and 105: 78 Nose weight Top: Figure 61. Typi
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80 Following the completion of cont
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82 After the proprotors stopped, th
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84 sudden stoppage of the right eng
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86 A reconversion to the helicopter
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88 Paris Air Show By early 1981, th
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90 enroute from Farnborough to Fran
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Top: Figure 66. Senator Goldwater i
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Figure 69. Shipboard evaluations of
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Figure 71. XV-15 at the New York Po
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98 Crash (October 16 and 17, 1991).
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100 The End of an Era By the mid 19
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Top: Figure 73. XV-15 at the Dallas
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104 management system was very effe
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106 could make use of the same flig
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Figure 76. The Bell tilt rotor eagl
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110 demonstrations two years earlie
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112 Future Tilt Rotor Aircraft By t
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114 tiltrotor aircraft program. Thi
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116 Model 1-G Characteristics Power
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Figure A-3. Transcendental Model 2
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Figure A-4. XV-3 three-view drawing
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Figure A-5. XV-3 inboard drawing, s
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Nacelle angle (degrees) 124 120 90
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Figure A-8. General layout and majo
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Figure A-9. Side view inboard profi
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Figure A-11. XV-15 height-velocity
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132 Weight Design . . . . . . . . .
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134 WBS LEVEL: Bell Army/NASA I II
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136 US Army Air Mobility Research a
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138 Army/NASA (continued) Staff (19
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140 Appendix C—Chronology 1452-15
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142 1968 Boeing Vertol awarded cont
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144 November, Initial piloted simul
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146 24 March 1982 XV-15 demonstrate
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148 30 July 1987 FAA/NASA/DOD Tilt
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150 21 August 1990 V-22 reached 340
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152 14 June 1993 The Department of
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154 Appendix D—Awards and Records
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Figure D-1. Jean Tinsley, first wom
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Figure E-3. XV-15 flying by the Sta
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Figure E-7. Bell test pilots Roy Ho
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Figure E-11. Ken Wernicke, Bell til
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164 Appendix F—Bibliography Tilt
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166 Ball, J. C. “XV-15 Shipboard
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168 Churchill, G. B.; Dugan, D. C.
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170 Edenborough, H. K. “Investiga
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172 Harendra, P. B.; Joglekar, M. J
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174 Kvaternik, Raymond G. “Studie
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176 Magee, J. P.; Pruyn, R. “Pred
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178 Martin, Stanley, Jr.; Erb, Lee
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180 Rutledge, Charles K.; George, A
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182 Tischler, M. B.; Leung, J. G. M
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184 Whitaker, H. L.; Cheng, Yi. “
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186 Daniel C. Dugan Daniel Dugan gr
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188 Carnet, 88 Carpenter, Ron, 91 C
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190 Moffett Airfield, Moffett Field
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Monographs in Aerospace History Lau
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National Aeronautics and Space Admi
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