This is a progress report for the concept design for a roadable helicopter; i. e., a helicopter that can fold up its blades and drive off like a car. The study is funded by NASA's Langley Research Center, and is the result of a survey of the American helicopter industry two years ago to determine if there was any interest by those companies to study this concept which has the added features of a fully automatic stability / control / navigation system for complete hands-off flight, could be built at a rate of at least 500,000 units per year, and would sell for a price equivalent to a then-year luxury automobile. The unanimous response was that this would be a fantastically attractive engineering project, could undoubtedly be made to work, but reaching the suggested production rate and cost would be a substantial challenge. McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems (MDHS) agreed to look into the matter, and this paper describes where we were about three months into the study.
Roadable Helicopter
Sae Technical Papers
World Aviation Congress & Exposition ; 1996
1996-10-01
Conference paper
English