If there were one project that best symbolizes that difficulty, it would be the V-22 Osprey commissioned by the United States military in 1981. After a development history that included enough disastrous accidents to fill their own Wikipedia page and development costs that ballooned from an initial $2.5 billion to $35.6 billion, the V-22 finally entered service in 2007.
But the dismal past of the tilt-rotor craft may soon be making way for a much more prosperous future, and AgustaWestland hopes to lead the way with their new electrically-powered Project Zero.
Designed and built in fewer than six months Project Zero has taken flight several times since 2011. Using its twin rotors, the craft takes off like a helicopter and then transitions to “traditional” forward flight by turning its rotors 90 degrees.
According to AugustaWestland, Project Zero’s rotors are “driven by advanced electric motors powered by rechargeable batteries; future hybrid solutions have also been investigated using a diesel engine to drive a generator. All of the aircraft control systems, flight control and landing gear actuators are electrically powered, removing the need for any hydraulic system.”
Being an electric craft, Project Zero naturally needs a recharge between flights, but rather than plugging the machine into a wall to recharge its batteries, AugustaWestland’s engineers have come up with a clever solution: the craft’s own rotors can be converted from propellers into windmills. On a breezy day, the batteries can be recharged without the use of any external power source.
Image Courtesy of AugustaWestland