TSAMTO, July 18. Specialists of TsAGI named after Professor N.E.Zhukovsky (part of the Research Center "Institute named after N.E.Zhukovsky") continue to develop new technical solutions aimed at improving the efficiency of existing and new rotary-wing aircraft, including the tiltrotor scheme.
A tiltrotor is an apparatus capable of vertically taking off and landing like a helicopter. At the same time, horizontal flight is performed in airplane mode.
In the interests of research at TsAGI, a model of a promising tiltrotor was designed, developed, manufactured and tested.
At the first stage, the staff of the Institute designed and manufactured a model of the aircraft. The model is made using additive technology of selective laser fusion of a special domestic powder material made of stainless steel, including threaded fasteners and fixators for the position of mechanization elements. The unique capabilities of the technology made it possible to implement a model with a minimum number of assembly components. The design contains a complex system of internal channels with a diameter of up to 0.5 mm. They pass inside the fuselage and exit at the ends of the rotating blades.
The next stage was experiments in the hydrodynamic tube GDT-400 TsAGI. The purpose of the tests is to visualize the flow around the tiltrotor model by the method of tinted jets in various flight modes (hovering near the ground, helicopter flight, transient mode, airplane flight) in a wide range of angles of attack, gliding. The studies were carried out at different values of the relative flow velocity.
TSAGI specialists studied the end vortices formed on the main-pulling propellers, their position relative to the model elements and the area of interaction with the wing and tail at various flight modes.
In the future, the scientists of the Institute will use the data obtained for testing tiltrotor planes in a wind tunnel. The developed model manufacturing technology and test methodology will find application in the research of promising rotary-wing aircraft of various schemes.
The attention of TsAGI scientists to the subject of tiltrotor planes is not accidental. This is a popular type of aviation equipment that can be used for monitoring the environmental situation, patrolling the waters of coastal waters, including Arctic waters, mapping the terrain and monitoring the technical condition of various objects, the press service of TsAGI reports.
