Fri, Oct 15, 2004
Bell's new tail fan
demonstrator helicopter is back at the company's XworX facility in
Arlington, Texas, following a successful round of high altitude
flight-testing in Leadville, Colorado. While in Colorado the
aircraft demonstrated OGE (out of ground effect) hover at over
11,700 feet, and flight at an altitude greater than 13,000
feet.
It also demonstrated left and right sideward flight up to 45
knots. On the return trip to Texas following testing, the aircraft
visited Air Methods at Denver's Centennial Airport and demonstrated
its very low noise signature.
The tail fan demonstrator aircraft completed its first flight on
July 15, 2004. The demonstrator is being used to explore the flight
characteristics of this protected, low-noise anti-torque device
intended for use on Bell's new MAPL line of light helicopters (the
Modular Affordable Product Line.)
The tail fan demonstrator is an experimental Bell 407 with a
forty-inch diameter fan and duct, which replace the sixty-five inch
diameter tail rotor. The tail fan incorporates technology developed
during bench testing completed earlier this year, many features of
which are covered by new patent disclosures. It has been designed
to allow testing in multiple different duct configurations, to
provide information on their performance and acoustics in hover and
forward flight.
The tail fan is only one of many new technologies being
developed specifically for the MAPL family, including an advanced
rotor demonstrator planned to fly later this year. The first
aircraft in the MAPL family is expected to be available in 2008,
although some of these new technologies are mature and could be
incorporated in existing Bell aircraft now in production.
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