| Boeing To Test Advanced Helicopter Rotor System |
St. Louis MO: Boeing has been awarded a $3 million Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency contract to test an innovative main rotor system that promises
quieter operation, reduced vibration and potentially improved performance for
military helicopters like the AH-64D Apache Longbow.
Boeing will test the "Smart Rotor" over the next year at NASA Ames Research
Center's 40 by 80-foot wind tunnel in California to study the system's forward
flight characteristics and gather data to validate state-of-the-art
aero-acoustic analysis codes.
These codes are used to predict a variety
of data that help identify the cause of rotor noise, allowing engineers to study
and compare alternate designs.
Boeing previously validated the robustness
and authority of the modified commercial MD 900 rotor system on its whirl tower
in Mesa, Ariz.
"If the technology shows the predicted benefits of this
advanced system, we may consider adding it to the Apache helicopter to
significantly enhance its performance," said Friedrich Straub, Smart Rotor
project engineer.
The system, which incorporates several new technologies
that make it more capable and quieter than existing rotors, includes trailing
edge blade flaps controlled by on-blade piezo electric actuators and control
electronics that optimize flap motions. The system, Straub added, ultimately
could be applied to other military and civil aircraft as well.
The MD 900
rotor system, designed by Boeing engineers before the company sold the MD 900
production line to MD Helicopters, Inc., in 1999, provided an ideal test
platform to study enhancements to the system.
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