The Bell Eagle Eye TiltRotor UAV demonstrator had been developed to validate and also refine fundamental flying characteristics and also additionally functional performance properties of the lightweight model Tiltrotor with the possibility for long-term applications to VTOL UAV missions. Scaled Composites had been chosen to style and also also fabricate the composite layout for the two demonstrator airframes, most notably the landing gear, and also to incorporate Bell-supplied propulsion and flight control techniques.
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A full size Bell Eagle Eye Photo: helis.com |
Due to Its twin specifications to each hover and also to launch as a traditional aircraft, the Eagle Eye needed a rather complex constructive arrangement. Its fuel turbine engine (the Allison C20) is mounted within The center body and also really is attached up to a pairing transmission. Disc drive shafts from all the incorporating transmission pass thru The center of the wing and also connect to transmissions at every each wingtip. The wingtips contain the transmission as well as as the actuator used to tilt the wingtip transmission and also rotor assemblies.
The cantilever wing container experiences really diverse constructive loading for the duration of hover and also conventional frontward flight. The extra challenge was actually to make the wingbox a fuel fish tank (wet wing), even while preserving the dried out condition of the transmission disc drive shaft conduits.
The composite sandwich fuselage presented three removable sections; the nose, centre portion and also tail. This became set up to permit for a reduction in general length during the course of transport and also space. The nose portion had been mounted upon hinges allowing effortless access to the avionics as well as other objective equipment. The center piece incorporated the wingbox, fuel tanks engine and also landing gear. Access to The center piece is right through the reduction of the entire top piece of the fuselage. The removable tail was actually attached through a straight forward handy screw sequence. The tail contains several antenna and also actuators for the pitch control surfaces. Every of the hard aspects and also mounts had been setup by Scaled and all of the system components such as the engine, transmissions, oil coolers, avionics, flight control techniques, flaps, and also control surfaces had been installed and also examined for clearance, interference and also easily fit into the fuselage structure before the vehicles happened to be delivered to Bell. Scaled Composites also manufactured and additionally integrated all of the landing gear components for each vehicles.
The structure ended up being in fact static load assessed with the customer's involvement (and also for their satisfaction). Also available was training to teach Bell's client (the U.S. Navy) regarding the composite structures utilized by Scaled.
Though the 1st vehicle was actually damaged in a powerful accident, the 2nd Eagle Eye demonstrator happens to be very successful, showing all of the flight stages from hover right through the transition, and also flew to around 165 KCAS in forward flight. The low-cost fast-paced demonstrator program was actually another highly showed demonstration of Scaled's distinct capabilities.