This article was taken from the November 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
This aircraft is a tiltrotor -- an all-electric helicopter-aeroplane hybrid. It uses two rotors that can be angled either to ease off the ground vertically and hover like a helicopter, or incline more than 90 degrees to fly at similar speeds and altitudes as aeroplanes.
Anglo-Italian helicopter maker Agusta-Westland developed the pilotless craft, called Project Zero, beating efforts by the US Army, Nasa and Boeing, which have all tried developing a working tiltrotor since the 1930s.
It's the first craft of its kind to integrate two swing-bucket rotors into the main fuselage, making it more efficient and easier to control when taking off. The body, designed by Italian car company Bertone, is made entirely of carbon graphite to maximise its strength and keep the weight down to 900kg. It also has no transmission or swashplates, instead using electromechanical actuators that individually rotate each blade, reducing vibrations and making flight smoother. "It's a flying test bench, the most beautiful in the world," says lead engineer Luigi Moretti, alongside the 13m-wide aircraft at AgustaWestland's headquarters in Lombardy. The whole project took just one year, of which the first three months were devoted to planning, according to James Wang, vice president of research and technology at AgustaWestland and Moretti's project partner.
Wang and three designers locked themselves away in a room hand-drawing the designs. "Everything in this aircraft was a challenge because I wanted something that was supposedly impossible to realise," says Wang. "So it has electric propulsion and vertical takeoff - but not like a helicopter - which required two rotors and no mechanical transmission. Mostly, I wanted it to look sexy."
In December 2012, after getting the green light for his "impossible" mission from the CEO, Wang assembled a team of 20 at AgustaWestland headquarters and they set about finishing Project Zero within months. "If the project takes you two years you lose your chance, you lose your moment," he explains.
The project drew on the expertise of all AgustaWestland's partners: UK-based Lola Composites provided the carbon graphite for the body; American company Rotor Systems Research helped with the aerodynamics of the rotors, which were produced by Japanese company Uchida. "This project has had the most intellectual input of all the company's work," says Moretti. "Even the people working on the forklifts were involved, like they were PhD students in engineering."
Project Zero's new system for swashplateless, electromechanically controlled rotors could be adapted to make existing helicopters more stable in flight. The craft's combination of speed and control means it could replace helicopters in emergency rescues, and pilotless flight allows it to be used at high altitudes or in heavily polluted or toxic environments, such as during a volcanic eruption.
Only one obstacle remains, says Moretti: "The engines are there but the batteries are not. During the tests, the engines were working at three times their capacity." The lithium-polymer batteries remove the need for maintenance-heavy hydraulics but they're not resilient enough for sustained flight. Agusta-Westland tried to adapt the ultrafast batteries by integrating a safety switch that prevents them from short-circuiting, overheating and catching fire. They are also considering a transition to a hybrid diesel-fuelled engine, and changing the blades so that, meeting the wind at the right angle, the turbines could be made to recharge the batteries.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
