mercurynews, Lockheed Martin and Bell Helicopter have reached a milestone in a joint effort to develop an unmanned combat helicopter for the Army.
In a relatively low-budget experimental program funded by the Pentagon, the Lockheed-Bell team is competing for a contract to develop prototypes of an armed helicopter that, without a pilot or other crewman, could scout and attack enemy forces.
Lockheed announced last week that it had completed a preliminary design review. Officials from the companies said they are confident that they have the right proposal to win additional funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The Lockheed-Bell team is competing against a group headed by Northrop Grumman and Sikorsky Aircraft, which is owned by United Technologies.
DARPA, the Pentagon's in-house think tank that provides funding for exotic new weapons research and development, is expected in October to name a winner that will receive funding to build two prototype aircraft for testing.
“We feel very confident … that we will be the team selected,” said Jon Rudy, Bell's program director.
The Lockheed-Bell program is being directed by Lockheed's Systems Integration division in Owego, N.Y., which designs and installs high-tech communications and weapons systems in helicopters.
Bell's Xworkx development group in Fort Worth is designing the basic aircraft, but it is working with engineers and technical experts from Fort Worth-based Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co.'s Skunk Works and Dallas-based Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. Bell, based in Fort Worth, is a unit of Textron Corp.
Dan Rice, Lockheed's program director in Owego, said the goal is to produce an armed, unmanned, high-speed helicopter that could be directed by controllers on the ground or from nearby aircraft but would operate with a great deal of autonomy.
Although many components for the system will come from commercially available, off-the-shelf technology, “we are pressing the limits of technology” in some key areas, Rice said.
The team aims to produce unmanned helicopters that could seek, find and attack enemy forces without endangering pilots, directed by a controller in a separate aircraft, operating out of the range of enemy fire.
Last year, DARPA awarded the Lockheed team $9.4 million and the Northrop team $8.7 million to produce detailed design work and conduct technology demonstration.
If the project goes forward and receives additional funding, the Pentagon hopes to begin fielding the unmanned helicopters by around 2012. The goal is to develop an aircraft that could be purchased for $4 million to $8 million, well below the cost of existing manned attack helicopters.
It is not clear how many of the aircraft the military would be interested in over time, or where they would be built.
Bell's design, as shown in an artists' drawing, resembles no helicopter the company has produced. It features a small swept wing and no tail rotor. It would also use engine power, as well as the conventional helicopter rotor, to generate thrust.
The result would be an aircraft about the same size and weight (5,000 pounds) as Bell's commercial 407 helicopter but significantly faster. The unmanned aircraft, even loaded with electronics systems and weapons, would likely have a cruise speed of about 160 knots, compared with 133 knots for the 407.
One of the key technology breakthroughs, Rice said, has been demonstrating the feasibility of using turbine engine thrust, directed by nozzles, to perform the role of a tail rotor in controlling the direction of the aircraft.
“We've done full-scale ground tests of the nozzle system so we've got a great deal of confidence in this system,” Rice said.
The new technology, which would be quieter and safer than a tail rotor as well as providing additional thrust for speed, could be adapted for use on commercial helicopters in the future, said Bell's Rudy.
Bell's role in the design effort should pay off in other ways as well. “It's bringing a lot of new technology on board,” Rudy said.
