Karem Tiltrotor A Contender For Army Utility Role
When the Pentagon set out its Future Vertical Lift (FVL) strategy to develop a family of advanced rotorcraft to replace its fleets of helicopters originally designed in the 1960s and '70s, one goal was to engage non-traditional suppliers to bring more innovation into the sector.
With the inclusion of two startup companies among the four teams awarded contracts for the U.S. Army's Joint Multi-Role technology demonstration (JMR TD), the Defense Department has taken a step toward that goal. Bell Helicopter and a Sikorsky/Boeing team may still be the favorites to fly two high-speed rotorcraft demonstrators in 2017, but they face real competition from two relative unknowns.
AVX Aircraft had already declared its hand, previously unveiling the 230-kt. coaxial-rotor, ducted-fan compound helicopter it is designing for JMR. But Karem Aircraft was not confirmed as a contender until Oct. 2, when the Army announced the four cost-sharing technology investment agreements for the $217 million JMR TD Phase 1 flight demonstration.
Karem Aircraft was formed in 2000 by Abe Karem, designer of the Predator unmanned aircraft and A160 Hummingbird unmanned helicopter, to develop his optimum-speed tiltrotor (OSTR) concept. Along with the other teams, Karem now has $6.5 million and nine months to complete preliminary design of its JMR demonstrator, the TR36TD, after which the Army will select two designs to be built and flown.
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DXing wrote:Looks like they went down to Home Depot, bought an industrial size floor fan and bolted it on to the back of the helicopter!!
Interesting company website. Several helicopters I had never seen before mentioned in their history.
Click Click D'oh wrote:Piasecki X-49 was a nice "hey look what we can do" prototype, but was completely impractical as a real aircraft. Look where the wings are. Go ahead, try to unass that in a hot LZ.
