A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-wing aircraft and other hybrid aircraft with powered rotors such as cyclogyros/cyclocopters and gyrodynes.
A tiltrotor is an aircraft that generates lift and propulsion by way of one or more powered rotors mounted on rotating shafts or nacelles usually at the ends of a fixed wing. Almost all tiltrotors use a transverse rotor design, with a few exceptions that use other multirotor layouts.
Sikorsky Aircraft is an American aircraft manufacturer based in Stratford, Connecticut. It was established by the Russian aviation pioneer Igor Sikorsky in 1923, and was among the first companies to manufacture helicopters for civilian and military use. It also produced seaplanes for passenger transport and surface vehicles such as trains and boats.
The CarterCopter is an experimental compound autogyro developed by Carter Aviation Technologies in the United States to demonstrate slowed rotor technology. On 17 June 2005, the CarterCopter became the first rotorcraft to achieve mu-1 (μ=1), an equal ratio of airspeed to rotor tip speed, but crashed on the next flight and has been inoperable since. It is being replaced by the Carter Personal Air Vehicle.
The Leonardo AW609, formerly the AgustaWestland AW609, and originally the Bell-Agusta BA609, is a twin-engined tiltrotor VTOL aircraft with an overall configuration similar to that of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. It is capable of landing vertically like a helicopter while having a range and speed in excess of conventional rotorcraft. The AW609 is aimed at the civil aviation market, in particular VIP customers and offshore oil and gas operators. It has progressed from a concept in the late 1990s, to development and testing, and is working towards certification in the 2020s.
The Piasecki Aircraft Corporation (PiAC) is a manufacturer of aircraft, principally advanced rotorcraft. It was founded by American vertical flight pioneer Frank Piasecki to develop compound helicopters and other advanced rotorcraft after he was ousted from the leadership of his first company, Piasecki Helicopter.
A gyrodyne is a type of VTOL aircraft with a helicopter rotor-like system that is driven by its engine for takeoff and landing only, and includes one or more conventional propeller or jet engines to provide forward thrust during cruising flight. During forward flight the rotor is unpowered and free-spinning, like an autogyro, and lift is provided by a combination of the rotor and conventional wings. The gyrodyne is one of a number of similar concepts which attempt to combine helicopter-like low-speed performance with conventional fixed-wing high-speeds, including tiltrotors and tiltwings.
A rotorcraft or rotary-wing aircraft is a heavier-than-air aircraft with rotary wings or rotor blades, which generate lift by rotating around a vertical mast. Several rotor blades mounted on a single mast are referred to as a rotor. The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) defines a rotorcraft as "supported in flight by the reactions of the air on one or more rotors".
The Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition was established in 1980 by the American Helicopter Society (AHS) International. The award, the AHS Sikorsky Prize, was given for the first human powered helicopter (HPH) to meet a set of extremely challenging flight requirements. In summary, the requirements to win the AHS Sikorsky Prize included a flight duration of 60 seconds and reaching an altitude of 3 meters, with the center point of the aircraft hovering over a 10-by-10-metre square.
A human-powered helicopter (HPH) is a helicopter powered solely by one or more humans carried on board. As in other human-powered aircraft, the power is usually generated by pedalling. It remains a considerable engineering challenge to obtain both the power-to-weight ratio and rotor efficiency required to sustain a helicopter in flight.
A convertiplane is defined by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale as an aircraft which uses rotor power for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) and converts to fixed-wing lift in normal flight. In the US it is further classified as a sub-type of powered lift. In popular usage it sometimes includes any aircraft that converts in flight to change its method of obtaining lift.
The Bell 533 was a research helicopter built by Bell Helicopter under contract with the United States Army during the 1960s, to explore the limits and conditions experienced by helicopter rotors at high airspeeds. The helicopter was a YH-40—a preproduction version of the UH-1 Iroquois—modified and tested in several helicopter and compound helicopter configurations. The Bell 533 was referred to as the High Performance Helicopter (HPH) by the Army, and reached a top speed of 274.6 knots in 1969, before being retired.
A personal air vehicle (PAV) is a proposed class of passenger aircraft providing on-demand air transport.
The Bell Boeing Quad TiltRotor (QTR) is a proposed four-rotor derivative of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey developed jointly by Bell Helicopter and Boeing. The concept is a contender in the U.S. Army's Joint Heavy Lift program. It would have a cargo capacity roughly equivalent to the C-130 Hercules, cruise at 250 knots, and land at unimproved sites vertically like a helicopter.
A powered lift aircraft takes off and lands vertically under engine power but uses a fixed wing for horizontal flight. Like helicopters, these aircraft do not need a long runway to take off and land, but they have a speed and performance similar to standard fixed-wing aircraft in combat or other situations.
The Baldwin Mono Tiltrotor project is a research effort into a tiltrotor aircraft that uses only one rotor. Like other tiltrotor configurations, the mono tiltrotor combines the vertical lift capability and structural efficiency of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft.
The AgustaWestland Project Zero is a hybrid tiltrotor/Lift fan aircraft. It has been developed by AgustaWestland as a technology demonstrator, and is used to investigate all-electric propulsion and other advanced technologies. It is the world's first electric tiltrotor aircraft.
The AeroVelo Atlas is a human-powered helicopter (HPH) that was built for AHS International's Igor I. Sikorsky Human Powered Helicopter Competition. On 13 June 2013, it became the first aircraft to achieve the goals of the competition and thus won the prize.
Prof. Alfred Gessow was an American pioneer in the field of helicopter aerodynamics and aerospace engineering. He was a co-author of the early rotorcraft engineering text Aerodynamics of the Helicopter, which, although published in 1952, has been in print for more than 50 years. Gessow was chair of the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland, College Park, and was ultimately promoted to Professor Emeritus.
European Future Advanced Rotorcraft (EuroFAR) was a proposed tiltrotor aircraft that was pursued during the 1980s and 1990s. It was a collaborative programme undertaken by the EuroFAR consortium, which comprised Aerospatiale, Agusta, Aeritalia, Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm, Westland, and Construcciones Aeronáuticas SA (CASA).
