Baldwin’s latest marketing video, meanwhile, shows some recent changes to his design for a 9,400lb MTR scaled demonstrator, including streamlining to reduce drag. And the lower parts of the suspension struts have been changed to cables, so they don’t have to carry the weight of the vehicle when setting down the load. (Iron Mountain is an Army term for the huge stockpiles of supplies it must move.)
Baldwin calculates a full-scale heavylift MTR would be half the size and a third the weight of a conventional helicopter, with one third the fuel burn. Bell Helicopter was hired to conduct an independent assessment of the scaled demonstrator design and largely agreed with the projections, he says.
But no multi-million dollar demonstrator yet for Doug Baldwin. First he has to get his latest radio-control model to take off vertically lifting the suspended load, aerodynamically deploy its wing and tilt its coaxial rotor, then reverse the process to land.
