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DARPA greenlights Bell's rotor-folding X-plane
Bell's revolutionary X-plane rotorcraft has received the green light to progress to the building and testing of a demonstrator aircraft. DARPA has down-selected the craft to move to Phase 2 of the agency's Speed and Runway Independent Technologies (SPRINT) program.
Rotorcraft such as the V-22 Osprey, with tiltable blades sitting on nacelles at the end of the aircraft's wings, have been around for decades, but DARPA's SPRINT program wants to push these to the next level by introducing a bit of Transformer's technology. Based on Bell's Valor-280, the X-plane ups the speed and performance by using nacelles with rotors that can be feathered and stopped before folding away as the aircraft transitions from propeller horizontal flight to jet propulsion. "Bell is honored to have been selected for the next phase of DARPA’s SPRINT program and is excited to demonstrate a brand-new aircraft with the first-ever stop/fold technology," said Jason Hurst, senior vice president, Engineering.
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