XV-15 litho - NASA's History Office

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Figure 36. 1/5 scale XV-15 model in 7by 10-ft. wind tunnel. Top: Small landing gear housings. (Ames Photograph AC98-0204-2 (6-A)) Bottom: Large landing gear housings. (Ames Photograph AC98-0202-1) 38 changes that evolved during the detailed design process. Preparations for the Model Specification and program planning were made in late summer of 1972 when Shorty Schroers (a Project Office member) and two other engineers from the Ames Aeronautics and Flight Systems Directorate staff conducted a fact-finding mission to establish possible future military tilt rotor research and technology requirements. Their visits included the Aviation Systems Command, St. Louis, Missouri, the Naval Air Development Command, Johnsonville, Pennsylvania, the Army Electronic Command, Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey, and the Ft. Eustis Directorate of the Army AMRDL at Ft. Eustis, Virginia. The trip report addressed takeoff, transition and cruise requirements, descent and approach issues, and precision hover requirements for military applications. The findings identified both desirable or required characteristics and areas of research that would be included in the Model Specification and future flight test program of the TRRA. The Ames Tilt Rotor Research Aircraft Project Office requested an experimental designation for the new aircraft from the Air Force office that assigned designation numbers for Department of Defense experimental aircraft. The TRRA was to carry the prefix XV (for experimental, vertical takeoff). The initial response from the Air Force was XV-14. This was perceived to be a problem, since Ames was still operating the X-14B VTOL aircraft and the similar designations might cause confusion. The designation was therefore changed to XV-15 and a proof-of-concept aircraft that would make aviation history was named. In the 1970s, the tail numbers of aircraft flown by NASA under “public law” contained three digits, the first digit indicating the research center, with Ames being assigned the 700 series. At the start of the aircraft development program tail numbers N702NA and N703NA were designated for the tilt rotor research aircraft.
Shortly after the start of the Phase II-A work, Bell began to focus on TRRA design issues and identified two options for the main landing gear configuration. One approach retracted the gear into the fuselage. The retracted gear would occupy a substantial amount of cabin space, but required only a modest-sized housing (landing gear pod) to enclose the mechanism in flight. Another arrangement utilized the main landing gear hardware developed for the Canadair CL-84 Tilt Wing VTOL Aircraft. To achieve the necessary distance between the outboard wheels, the landing gear would be mounted so that it would retract outboard of the fuselage contour, resulting in a clear cabin space but requiring a larger landing gear pod. While this approach offered a lower development risk and could be implemented at a lower cost than the internally retracting configuration, it would produce a higher drag that would reduce the maximum airspeed in the airplane mode. To evaluate and compare the drag of the two pod configurations, an unpowered 1/5 scale force-model was tested in the AMRDL 7- by 10foot wind tunnel at Ames in August 1973. Figures 36a and 36b show a front view of the model installed in the wind tunnel with the different landing gear housings. This brief test showed that using the larger pods would result in a 5-7 knot reduction in maximum airspeed. This performance loss was considered acceptable in light of the cost and risk reduction benefits from using an already flight-qualified landing gear. Therefore, the existing CL-84 landing gear design was selected for the XV-15. With the work on the aircraft design underway, a Government Resident Project Office headed by Jim Lane (from the Ames TRRA Project Office) was established at the main Bell engineering plant in Hurst, Texas. The major function of this Office was to interact with the Bell staff to monitor technical progress and to understand technical issues. Additionally, this Office tracked the level of effort and the periodic labor hour and cost reports, served as representatives of the Ames Project Office in certain activities that required Government observation, coordinated with the Army Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) in matters related to Government inspection activities, and coordinated pertinent information with the TRRA staff and management. The Resident Office issued weekly reports which documented the key events of each week and the technical and administrative status of the project from the time it initiated operation in 1973 until it shut down after completion of the aircraft proof-of-concept flight test at Bell, nearly a decade later. The tilt rotor research aircraft project (called Level I) was to be managed by a Work Breakdown Structure approach. This management tool 23 divided the planned activity into its major parts, or “Elements” (Level II). These Work Breakdown Structure Elements (WBSE) were further divided to the level required for adequate project management and control. For the TRRA project, the WBSE’s were the major hardware subsystems and the major focused activities to be worked on 23 James J. Diehl, “Application of a Cost/Performance Measurement System on a Research Aircraft Project,” NASA TM 78498, June 1, 1978. 39
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 56 and 57: 30 During the late 1960s and early
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 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
Page 106 and 107: 80 Following the completion of cont
Page 108 and 109: 82 After the proprotors stopped, th
Page 110 and 111: 84 sudden stoppage of the right eng
Page 112 and 113: 86 A reconversion to the helicopter
Page 114 and 115:
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
Page 120 and 121:
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
Page 144 and 145:
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
Page 166 and 167:
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
Page 180 and 181:
154 Appendix D—Awards and Records
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Figure D-1. Jean Tinsley, first wom
Page 184 and 185:
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
Page 192 and 193:
166 Ball, J. C. “XV-15 Shipboard
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168 Churchill, G. B.; Dugan, D. C.
Page 196 and 197:
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
Page 206 and 207:
180 Rutledge, Charles K.; George, A
Page 208 and 209:
182 Tischler, M. B.; Leung, J. G. M
Page 210 and 211:
184 Whitaker, H. L.; Cheng, Yi. “
Page 212 and 213:
186 Daniel C. Dugan Daniel Dugan gr
Page 214 and 215:
188 Carnet, 88 Carpenter, Ron, 91 C
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190 Moffett Airfield, Moffett Field
Page 219 and 220:
Monographs in Aerospace History Lau
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National Aeronautics and Space Admi
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XV-15 litho - NASA's History Office

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