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At the MAKS air show in Zhukovsky Commander-in-Chief of the Air and Space Forces (VKS) Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev said that in Russia, work is in full swing on the creation of a wide variety of rotary-wing aircraft in the interests of the Ministry of Defense. These are traditional transport, attack, specialized, as well as unmanned helicopters operating in a "flock". Which, however, was not much news. A real sensation in other words of Bondarev: for the first time it was announced that our country intends to soon acquire fundamentally new machines - convertiplanes.

Moreover, two companies are engaged in convertiplanes at once. In Zhukovsky at MAKS, an experimental tiltrotor of the Russian Helicopters holding is presented, which is subsequently supposed to be brought to the condition of a specific combat vehicle with takeoff weight up to two tons. Well, the Kronstadt group of companies intends to create a family of heavy unmanned convertiplanes.

The task is very difficult, since the tiltrotor is an extremely capricious machine in management, which requires not only significant financial costs, but also long-term development. Probably, it is for this reason that only one series of serial converters fly in the world today - the Bell V-22 Osprey. The vehicles were adopted by the US Marine Corps and the US Navy in 2005. The Americans have been creating them for more than three decades. During the tests, they killed 30 people.

At the same time, each such "bird" as a modern fighter is worth overseas - $ 115 million. And this despite the fact that the V-22 is produced in transport, search and rescue and anti-submarine modifications. That is, their tiltroplanes are "not burdened" with expensive fire control equipment, they can only defend themselves by shooting heat traps, they do not have an electronic warfare system.

Tiltrotor MV-22 Osprey presented at the "Air Tattoo" exhibition (Photo: Marina Lystseva / TASS)

So what is this car? The tiltrotor combines the qualities of a helicopter (during takeoff and landing) and an aircraft with pulling propellers (during horizontal flight). Its undoubted advantage is the ability to operate without runways and, at the same time, surpass helicopters in flight range and payload.

Until recently, it was believed that the tiltrotor had serious speed advantages over the helicopter. However, now helicopter builders are already storming the bar of 500 km / h, which is not much inferior to the "propeller-driven aircraft" that are replacing them.

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft, which have both "helicopter" take-off and "airplane" horizontal flight, are extremely difficult to develop. Since the plane becomes unstable when switching from a vertical ascent mode to a level flight. Which is fraught with accidents. But with a tiltrotor, such instability is much higher. Because a VTOL aircraft has different engines that provide lift and flight. In a tiltrotor, the same engines pull the car first up and then push it forward. The transition to horizontal flight is carried out as a result of turning the propeller axis by 90 degrees.

It should be noted that the idea of ​​creating convertiplanes in the world has been hovering for a long time. Since the 1930s, designers in Russia, Europe and America have seized on the idea of ​​creating a "helicopter-plane" with great enthusiasm. But the matter did not advance for a long time beyond the construction of inoperable models. At the same time, designers invented a wide variety of translation schemes. aircraft from vertical to horizontal flight. The most realistic of them were two - a vertical scheme and a horizontal one.

The first is a conventional tail-mounted aircraft. The propeller located at the top of the aircraft creates lift during takeoff. Having risen to a sufficient height, the aircraft is transferred to a horizontal position and performs a normal flight in the "airplane" mode. This scheme has its merits. For example, the wings of a tiltrotor do not interfere with the air flow during takeoff.

But the disadvantages of such machines are much more significant. The main one is that the pilot in two modes needs to occupy two different positions inside the cockpit, turning the seat 90 degrees. Accordingly, the controls should also move by the same angle. In addition, during takeoff, the pilot has a small view, unless, of course, he is inside a glass ball.

In 1954, Convair began testing a US Navy-ordered convertible aircraft of this type, dubbed the XYF-1 Pogo. His flying qualities were excellent. Turboprop engine with a capacity of 5850 hp With. allowed to develop a maximum speed of 980 km / h, and the ascent speed was 3200 m / min. But two years later, the project was closed due to the fact that the customers came to the conclusion: an ordinary pilot is not able to control this machine. Because experienced testers unanimously stated that during takeoff and landing, the tiltrotor turns into a "damn stupa", making a sequence of insane and unpredictable jumps.

The horizontal scheme turned out to be efficient, although it is also very difficult to implement. It is a machine in which the screws turn 90 degrees. During takeoff, the tiltrotor works like a conventional helicopter, and after reaching the required altitude, the pilot turns the propellers, which become not lifting, but pulling.

At the same time, there are several options for transferring the propellers to the horizontal flight mode. The nacelles, in which the propeller engines are installed, rotate. Or completely wings. Or the tips of the wings on which the propeller motors are located.

Today it is a shame to realize that the first tiltrotor in the world to be put into mass production could have been not an American, but a Soviet machine. Mil Design Bureau began creating the Mi-30 in 1972. The carrying capacity of this flying "miracle Yudo" according to the project was up to 5 tons. The Mi-30 was supposed to carry up to 32 paratroopers over a distance of 800 km, the maximum speed was 600 km / h. The production of prototypes and their testing was planned for the period from 1986 to 1995. However, during "perestroika" the country first ran out of money. And soon the country itself "ended".

The American V-22 is made in the same way as the Mi-30. Two turboprop engines are located at the ends of the wing. And they are capable of turning 98 degrees. The result is a very solid car with a carrying capacity of up to 9 tons.

Most of the convertoplanes purchased by the Pentagon are operated on universal landing ships, as well as on ships of another type. In total, more than 250 vehicles of three modifications have already been built in the USA.

Here are the main flight characteristics of the Bell V-22 Osprey:

- length 19 m;

- height 6.7 m;

- wing area 36 sq. m;

- the diameter of the three-blade propeller is 11.6 m;

- maximum takeoff weight 25800 kg;

- power plant - 2 TVD with a capacity of 2 × 4600 kW;

- maximum speed 565 km / h;

- rate of climb 16 m / s;

- practical ceiling 7900 m;

- combat radius of 670 km;

- practical range of 2600 km;

- crew of 3 people;

- payload - 24 paratroopers or up to 9 tons of cargo in the cabin.

American Bell-Boeing CV-22B tiltrotor (Photo: Zuma Press / TASS)

Our country realized quite late that it lags far behind the United States in this area. The Russian Helicopters holding took up the problem only in 2015. And - on an initiative basis. At the same time, at first, they were counting on customers from the "rich" oil and gas sector, who were offered an effective machine for monitoring, reconnaissance and other actions in remote regions (most often called the Far North), where there are no airfields.

And now, right at MAKS, the military, it turns out, also paid attention to this project. It seems that their motives are about the same as with the recent announcement of the development of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft at the Yakovlev Design Bureau, which the Russian Defense Ministry somehow suddenly needed. It turns out that both VTOL aircraft and tiltrotor are intended, first of all, for operation in the Russian Navy on promising ships that will play the role Russian lungs aircraft carriers.

It is interesting that the tiltrotor in the BP holding is being developed not by the Mil design bureau and not the Kamov design bureau, which for many decades have been specializing in a related field - helicopters. Russian tiltrotor aircraft is concerned about the holding design department"VR-technologies", founded relatively recently - in 2014. And, therefore, he does not have much experience in this area.

The co-executor of the development is the Aerob company, a resident of the space cluster of the Skolkovo innovation park.

The pace of work is both impressive and puzzling. Last year, a few months after the start of development, an unmanned model made its first flight, on which technologies are being worked out and the features of a controlled flight of a tiltrotor are investigated. There are three stages ahead. First, a 300-kilogram unmanned sample must be built. Then there will be a 2-ton drone that will be ready for production and operation. In the end, it will come to a manned vehicle, which, according to the developers, will not be inferior to the "American" jointly developed by Bell and Boeing.

As they say, wait and see. But there are fears that the implementation of these plans by the efforts of the two newborn companies will not be seen not only by us, but also by our children.

The Kronshtadt company has created a flying model of the Fregat unmanned convertible aircraft. Vladimir Voronov, deputy general director of the company and head of the Center for Advanced Research, spoke about this in an interview with RIA Novosti.

"Kronstadt" has created a drone that can fly both in an airplane and in a helicopter. Thanks to this quality, its flight range is three times increased compared to a helicopter drone, ”Voronov said.

He noted that due to the combination of the qualities of an aircraft and a helicopter, the flight range of the drone will be increased. According to Voronov, this design of convertiplanes is a global trend. “The vertical takeoff vehicle is the holy grail of modern aviation. Agusta Westland and Lockheed Martin, as well as other world aviation leaders are working on this, ”Voronov emphasized.

"The creation of a flying model demonstrates the feasibility of the concept of creating an apparatus of such a scheme as a whole, which in turn opens the way to the beginning of work on heavier versions of UAVs - unmanned aerial vehicles," Denis Fedutinov, an expert in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, told the agency.

The Fregat tiltrotor is designed for air monitoring, cargo delivery and aerial work at a great distance from the bases of troops. Depending on the configuration, the take-off weight of the vehicle during vertical takeoff is from 500 kg to 1400 kg, with horizontal take-off - from 650 to 1800 kg.

The drone's payload ranges from 125 to 300 kg. The wingspan is from 4 to 7 m. The flight speed is on average 60-70 km / h. The flight range ranges from 1.5 to 3 km. The flight duration is 4 to 7 hours.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Aerospace Forces (VKS) of Russia, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, that in Russia they began to work on the creation of heavy UAVs and convertiplanes for army needs.

“Work in Russia is going in all directions: small and medium, and a large drone, and convertiplanes,” Bondarev said. According to him, in the future, drones will work in a unified control system and perform tasks in a "pack". He noted that the creation of such a network-centric system will further reduce the cost of training drone operators.

“The unmanned topic is developing. Be that as it may, training a pilot is more expensive than putting a good autopilot on the plane. If already now the operator can control one or two drones, then over time, with the development of the ground component, he will be able to control five or even ten vehicles, so it will be even cheaper, "added the commander-in-chief of the Aerospace Forces.

UNMANNED AIRCRAFT - CONVERTOPLAN "VR-TECHNOLOGIES"

TILTROTOR - UAVS "VR-TECHNOLOGIES"

17.02.2016


The unmanned tiltrotor that has no analogues has successfully passed the next stage of tests, having made its first flight. The creator of the device was the innovative design bureau “VR-technologies” of the holding “Russian Helicopters”. Oil and gas companies and various departments are showing interest in the unique development.
“Work on the creation of a unique machine began in 2015. During this time, we have achieved significant results and have already begun the first stage of flight tests, - said general manager"VR-technologies" Alexander Okhonko.
The project is being implemented under the Russian Helicopters - Speed ​​program. It is worth noting that the main task in the development of this drone was to create a flying laboratory to determine the effectiveness of layout schemes and search for innovative solutions.
It should be noted that a number of potential customers are already ready to purchase this unmanned complex for tasks related to monitoring and security. environment in places where take-off from the runway is impossible. The complex can control smoke in forests and dense urban development, carry out aerial photography, monitor oil and gas facilities, and deliver medicines to hard-to-reach areas.
The project of a promising multipurpose unmanned aerial vehicle was presented by the holding in August 2015 as part of the MAKS air show.
Convertoplanes are a special class of rotorcraft that have a number of advantages over traditional aircraft made according to an airplane or helicopter scheme. Convertoplanes make it possible to perform vertical take-off and landing on limited-sized sites and at the same time transport passengers or cargo at a higher speed and greater distance than traditional helicopter technology.
Russian Helicopters carried out tests at the base innovation center Skolkovo
Russian helicopters

18.05.2016


Russian Helicopters will show its three state-of-the-art UAVs for the first time at HeliRussia-2016.
An unmanned helicopter, a multicopter and a modernized tiltrotor will be demonstrated to the visitors of the exhibition. The developer of these devices was the VR-Technologies design bureau of the Russian Helicopters holding (part of the Rostec State Corporation).
As part of the development work on the creation of an unmanned aerial vehicle of a convertible type, specialists of "VR-Technologies" made an experimental flying laboratory of the apparatus for testing the system automatic control and navigation in various flight modes. In addition, work was carried out to synchronize the on-board equipment of the tiltrotor with payload elements (photo and video cameras, scanners, gas analyzers, smoke extractors, various sensors and thermal imagers).
“Compared to the model shown at the MAKS-2015 air show, further research has led to a change in the tiltrotor airframe. At the HeliRussia-2016 exhibition, viewers will be able to see the tiltrotor already in a modernized version with the addition of a carrier wing, "said Alexander Okhonko, General Director of VR-Technologies, noting that changes in the tiltrotor design contributed to an increase in the flight range, as well as to improve flight safety on transitional modes of this promising machine.
The tiltrotor, weighing 35 kg, is capable of lifting up to two kilometers and carrying up to 6 kg of payload. The range of the drone in automatic mode is about 450 km, and it is driven by a hybrid power plant, allowing it to accelerate to 140 km / h.
Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to see full-scale samples of two more UAV models: a helicopter and a multicopter, which have already successfully passed a series of flight tests. Both models are completely autonomous and capable of performing tasks according to a predetermined algorithm without operator intervention.
An unmanned 8-screw multicopter is driven by an electric motor and is able to stay in the air for about an hour, carrying 3 kilograms of payload. The maximum speed of the UAV will not exceed 60 km / h.
A helicopter-type UAV is also equipped with an electric motor and is capable of climbing to a height of up to two kilometers, carrying with it up to 5 kg of payload, while the maximum flight speed is up to 120 km / h. The design of the helicopter allows the use of a hybrid power plant to increase the flight time and range.
Russian Helicopters JSC

In Russia, tiltrotors and heavy unmanned aerial vehicles are being developed for the needs of the military. Viktor Bondarev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS), announced this at the MAKS-2017 aerospace show. According to him, in the future, military drones will be able to be embedded in unified system management, which will significantly reduce the cost of training operators. In an interview with RT, experts noted that Russian engineers set themselves a very difficult task.

Viktor Bondarev observes the flights of the aerobatic teams during his visit to MAKS-2017. RIA Novosti Alexey Nikolsky

The commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, said that tiltrotors and heavy drones are being developed in the country in the interests of the military. According to the general, in the future, drones will be able to be integrated into a single control system, which will significantly reduce the cost of training operators of these aircraft.

“The unmanned topic is developing. Be that as it may, training a pilot is more expensive than putting a good autopilot on the plane. If already now the operator can control one or two drones, then over time, with the development of the ground component, he will be able to control five or even ten vehicles, so it will be even cheaper, "Bondarev said.

In addition, he noted that unmanned aircraft in the future will be able to solve strategic strike missions due to their stealth and greater combat stability compared to manned aircraft.

Tiltrotor aircraft are aircraft capable of performing vertical fit and takeoff, like helicopters, without a runway, and level flight, like conventional aircraft. Today, the most common type of tiltrotor is the American Bell V-22 Osprey. In horizontal flight, it can reach speeds of up to 463 km / h, and in vertical flight - up to 185 km / h. The Osprey is powered by two Rolls-Royce T406 engines. This is the only tiltrotor used for military purposes.

Candidate of technical sciences and independent expert in the aerospace and defense industry, Vadim Lukashevich, in an interview with RT, said that the creation of a tiltrotor is a useful initiative due to the high combat performance of such an aircraft. However, the expert recalled that the creation of the Bell V-22 Osprey in the United States was fraught with great difficulties.

“Convertoplanes are currently in service only with the American army, being a symbiosis of an airplane and a helicopter. In normal flight, it is a propeller driven aircraft that can perform vertical takeoff and landing. In terms of its combat capabilities, this unit is somewhere in the middle between a traditional aircraft and a helicopter. This is a very nice car. It took a very long time to create it in America, and passed the tests very hard. There were serious disasters in which a lot of people died. This is a serious engineering challenge, and if we solve it, it will be very good, ”the expert explained.

The creation of heavy drones for the needs of the Russian Aerospace Forces, according to Lukashevich, is also positive news.

“Heavy drones have a large mass, fuel reserve, flight range and load, be it combat or reconnaissance systems. These are more flexible devices with wide possibilities. From the point of view of increasing the defense capability of our aerospace forces, this is also positive information, ”the expert noted.

Lukashevich stressed that only the military themselves can now know about the timing of entering the troops, and there is no information on this topic in the expert community yet.

“There is nothing difficult in creating a heavy drone for our aviation, but creating a tiltrotor is a rather serious and fundamentally new task. The Americans had a fairly large program worth about $ 70 billion, which was on the verge of closure due to fears that such a device was conceptually impossible. In this regard, it is easier for us: now we know that this task can be solved, and time will show the rest, ”the expert concluded.

The Russian Helicopters holding previously announced that it will present a prototype of an experimental unmanned tiltrotor VRT30 to visitors and participants of the MAKS-2017 air show.

“In this promising tiltrotor it is planned to use the latest technology superconductivity, developed by SuperOx, which will reduce the mass power plant, units of the power generating system and power supply systems ”, - emphasized the head of the holding Andrey Boginsky.

It is noted that from the end of 2018, the device is planned to be sent to mass production.

The Osprey V-22 tiltroplanes began to be widely exploited in the mid-2000s, so outside the expert community these devices are still treated with distrust. So, in 2013, residents of the island of Okinawa protested against the placement of Osprey tiltrotors there, which Japanese residents consider unsafe. Then the inhabitants of the island motivated the protests by the fact that tiltrotors are dangerous for the population, because this type of weapon has not yet proved its reliability. The Okinawan population feared that a new type of American aircraft could fall on residential areas.

In 2012, two Ospreys crashed in Florida and Morocco. In 2014, the MV-22 Osprey, shortly after taking off from the deck of the aircraft carrier Makin Island, began to lose altitude. Two crew members jumped out of it, after which the pilot regained control of the aircraft and managed to land safely on the aircraft carrier. One of those who left the cockpit was rescued, the second went missing. In 2015, a 22-man tiltrotor made a hard landing during an exercise at Bellows Air Force Base in Hawaii. Then two were killed and 12 marines were injured.

• The crash of a V-22 Osprey at the United States Air Force base in Hawaii

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MOSCOW, July 22 - RIA Novosti. Convertoplanes and heavy drones are being created for the Russian Armed Forces, said Colonel-General Viktor Bondarev, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

Work, according to him, is going "in all directions", and "the unmanned topic is developing." Small, medium and large drones are being created, including converters.

In the future, unmanned aerial vehicles will be able to work in a "flock", being built into a single control system, Bondarev said. The emergence of such a system will significantly reduce the cost of training drone operators.

"It is more expensive to train a pilot than to put a good autopilot on a plane. If already now the operator can control one or two drones, then over time, with the development of the ground component, he will be able to control five or even ten vehicles," the VKS commander-in-chief explained.

Earlier, Bondarev noted that in the future, unmanned aircraft - stealthy and more stable in combat conditions - will be able to solve strategic strike missions.

Unmanned tiltrotor RHV-30

The VR-Technologies design bureau of the Russian Helicopters holding presented at the air show a prototype of the modernized RHV-30 tiltrotor drone - it recently completed the next stage of flight tests.

Convertoplanes are vehicles with one or more propeller engines, which are located in swivel nacelles. During takeoff and landing, they work as lifting, according to the helicopter principle. In level flight, the engines rotate parallel to the ground and act as pulling engines.

As a result, the car can take off from any site - it does not need a runway - and travel at the speed of an airplane. However, it is technically difficult to implement such an idea, and today the only serial tiltrotor is the American Bell V-22 Osprey.

The Russian RHV-30 should enter the second stage of testing this year - it will be tested in various flight modes, weather conditions and with target payload elements. Serial production is expected to start at the end of 2018.

The device is equipped with four three-blade engines in swivel nacelles. In horizontal flight, it is supported in the air by two rigid wings with upward curved tips. It can accelerate to 140 kilometers per hour, cover a distance of 100 kilometers and rise to a height of up to three thousand meters. The RHV-30 can lift up to five kilograms of payload into the air.

Russia has developed a "nervous system" for the aircraft of the futureThe newest system for monitoring the state of the structure of aircraft is developed on the basis of the principles of the nervous system of living organisms. The developers believe that this should significantly improve flight safety.

"The RHV-30 can be used to monitor the environmental situation, patrolling coastal waters, including Arctic waters, mapping the area, monitoring the technical condition of various objects," the Russian Helicopters press service explained. For military purposes, the tiltrotor can be used for reconnaissance.

On the basis of the machine, it is planned to create a tiltrotor with a take-off weight of up to two tons, with an increased payload mass.

UAVs at MAKS-2017

Unmanned aerial vehicles have become a separate item on the MAKS-2017 program. Russian Helicopters for the first time presented prototypes of VRT300 helicopter-type drones at the air forum.

The device is being developed in two versions: Arctic Supervision - with side-looking radar for ice reconnaissance and Opticvision - with increased flight range for monitoring and remote sensing.

Thanks to the diesel engine and ship-based capabilities, the Arctic version of the VRT300 is indispensable "both on icebreakers and on drilling platforms," ​​the Russian Helicopters emphasize.

"The technical solutions used in the VRT300 will make it possible to determine the ice thickness in advance and to optimize the course (of the vessel. - Editor's note) in accordance with the data obtained," said the general director of the holding Andrey Boginsky.

Russian Helicopters notes the special interest in development on the part of China, which plans to become one of the operators of the Northern Sea Route.

During the air show, the Kronstadt group announced that it was beginning to promote the Orion-E heavy reconnaissance drone for export.

According to the general director of the company Armen Isahakyan, the device is ready for serial production. “We expect to occupy our niche in the field of heavy drones,” he said.

The Orion-E complex includes four to six drones and a ground station. According to the designers, it is "one hundred percent novelty": the design uses parts that have not been previously used in other models.