Design
The X-49A flight demonstrator is being developed with funding from the US Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate to demonstrate the ability to increase the speed of existing helicopters to 200 kt (360 km/h) or more. The flight demonstrator has been updated with a lifting wing taken from an Aerostar FJ-100 business jet. A ring tail has been added and the helicopter drive train modified to accommodate VTDP. Piasecki conducted integrated tests of the modified drive train at the Navy's helicopter transmission test facility. The wings are intended to produce lift to offload the rotor so the rotor can be slowed down and produce less drag, allowing for higher speed.
The cockpit controls are modified with the addition of a manual prop pitch override on the collective for the ring tail. This is the only visible change to the aircraft's existing mechanical controls in the cockpit. The other controls needed to operate the compound helicopter's systems are integrated into the aircraft's existing mechanical controls to reduce pilot workload. The weight added to the X-49A demonstrator aircraft is estimated at about 1,600 lb (725 kg) due to the requirement to not modify the existing mechanical control system.
Read more about this topic: Piasecki X-49
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