Boeing A160
| Boeing A160 Hummingbird | |
|---|---|
 Hummingbird A160 with payload |
|
| Type: | Reconnaissance drone |
| Design country: | |
| Manufacturer: | |
| First flight: |
January 29, 2002 |
| Commissioning: |
In flight testing |
| Number of pieces: |
9 (as of end of 2008) |
The Boeing A160 Hummingbird is a test vehicle for an unmanned aerial vehicle that takes off and lands vertically . The Hummingbird was developed by Boeing in cooperation with the US authority for military research projects (English abbreviation: DARPA) as a long-range reconnaissance helicopter . On May 14th and 15th, 2008, the Hummingbird set a new world record for helicopters with a non-stop flight time of 18 hours and 42 minutes.
development
The development of the Hummingbird originally began at Karem Aircraft in March 1998. Karem Aircraft was already developing the GNAT 750 , which formed the basis for the later RQ-1 Predator . A 30-month contract was received from DARPA, which provided for the construction of an unmanned light helicopter for tactical reconnaissance. The newly developed autonomous control elements were installed in a Robinson R22 helicopter and tested in 215 flight hours up to an accident in 2000.
A160
The first Hummingbird prototype, known as the A160 and equipped with a three-blade rotor, began with the first attempts at hovering on December 7, 2001 before making its maiden flight on January 29, 2002.
The first test flights showed that the original three-blade design was not powerful enough to meet the DARPA performance requirements. That is why they switched to a four-blade version of the A160 with a Subaru four-cylinder engine , which first flew in November 2002. After a total of three A160s with four-blade rotor were in test flight operation, another contract was received for 75 mil. U.S. dollar. This provided for the construction of four more machines, which were to be equipped with a KW600 diesel engine. This should reduce fuel consumption and thus increase the flight time. But after the first and third prototypes crashed, none of the four diesel engines were completed.
After the failure of the four Hummingbirds with diesel engines, the entire A160 program was initially about to be abandoned and Karem Aircraft ran into financial difficulties. Boeing then took over the program in May 2004 and incorporated Karem Aircraft into the Boeing Phantom Works.
A160T
Boeing began to fundamentally revise the design of the Hummingbird and built a total of five further prototypes between 2005 and 2007, which are now referred to as the A160T . The rotor construction was changed and the Subaru four-cylinder engine was replaced by a six-cylinder gasoline piston engine with 290 kW output. The US Army and the US Navy have now shown interest in the Boeing A160T . The A160T was named YMQ-18 Warrior for military use . In the flight program until 2008, Boeing gradually increased the flight duration and varied the reconnaissance systems installed. The United States Special Operations Command (SOCOM) expressed interest in initially 12 machines and increased the demand to 20 MQ-18s in early 2009. For the series variant, whose production was scheduled to start in 2009, Boeing plans to use the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207D gas turbine with an output of 410 kW, as well as the external weaponry of up to eight Hellfire missiles .
On July 28, 2010 there was another accident with a hummingbird . During an autorotation landing near California 's Victorville Airport (Victorville Southern California Logistics Airport), the aircraft fell on its side. During a 45-day series of tests in the jungles of Belize , another prototype of the helicopter crashed on September 10, 2010 at Central Farm airfield in San Ignacio, Cayo Province .
construction
In order to meet the high performance requirements, especially in terms of flight duration, the Hummingbird has an aerodynamically optimized design that is very unusual for helicopters. The fuselage is extremely narrow and made entirely of composite materials. In order to achieve the required stealth properties , the fuselage is coated with radar absorbing material and the landing gear is retractable. The rotor is designed to be rigid and has a hingeless rotor head. To reduce noise, the maximum rotor speed is limited so that the outer ends do not break through the sound barrier . Boeing claims to have halved the noise level in this way. The fact that the Hummingbird achieves high flight performance despite the rotor limitation is due on the one hand to the lightweight construction due to the composite materials, and on the other hand to the fact that the rotor blades are relatively large in relation to the fuselage.
The DARPA Forester radar system is used in the series machines.
Technical specifications
| Parameter | Data |
|---|---|
| overall length | 13.04 m |
| Hull length | 10.70 m |
| Rotor diameter | approx. 11 m |
| height | 2.95 m |
| Max. Payload | approx. 800 kg |
| Max. Fuel capacity | 1040 kg |
| Empty mass | 1134 kg |
| Max. Takeoff mass | 2948 kg |
| Top speed | 263 km / h |
| Service ceiling | 9144 m |
| Floating height | 6096 m (without ground effect) |
| Range | 4050 km |
| Duration of use | approx. 20 h |
| Engines | a Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207D gas turbine with 410 kW output |
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ A160 Hummingbird. (No longer available online.) Boeing, archived from the original on December 13, 2010 ; Retrieved August 2, 2010 .
- ↑ Boeing Flies A160T Hummingbird Unmanned Rotorcraft for 18 Hours. (No longer available online.) Boeing, May 21, 2008, archived from the original on October 20, 2008 ; Retrieved August 2, 2010 .
- ↑ Stephen Trimble: Boeing unmanned A160T crashes at California airport. Flightglobal, July 30, 2010, accessed August 2, 2010 .
- ↑ Gayle Putrich: A160 Hummingbird crashes during testing in Belize. Flightglobal, September 10, 2010, accessed August 2, 2010 .