Tilt Rotor Aircraft Since 1955

This is a thread about Tilt-rotor VTOL aircraft that have been successfully designed and flown since 1955. Feel free to enter more (remember that will be successful designs...not just drawing board stuff) and talk about them and those I enter here.

Here (over the next two posts) is a brief history of some of the more successfully flown Tilt-rotor VTOL aircraft (not pure VTOL aircraft) over the last 60 years with their manufacturer and the year of their first flight. The last, the V-280 Valor has not flown yet, but only been shown in full mockup as of 2014..

XV-3 (Bell) - 1955



X-18 (Heller) - 1959



X-19 (Curtiss Wright) - 1963



XC-142A (Vought) - 1964

History of Tilt Rotor aircraft since 1955 continued:

XV-15 (Bell) 1977



V-22 (Bell/Boeing) 1989



AW-609 (Augusta Westland) - 2003



V-280 (Bell) - Full Mockup (2014)



There have been others, but these give a pretty good historical overview.

It is interesting because Bell has been in the thick of this for the entire time with various designs. And they have steadily brought the ball forward.

The Osprey will be the most successful Tilt-rotor ever, and they are now piggy backing on that success...improving it...and I expect the new tilt-rotor aircraft they bring out (starting with V-280) are going to be just that much more successful.

As to the V-22, it is not done yet. And we will document this on that specific thread...but I expect we will see increasing numbers and increasing variants of that aircraft.

Two more Jeff, Bell Eagle Eye TR918 2004
IAI Panther 2012

Yes, TE...they are definitely tilt rotor...but I decided to focus on manned aircraft in my post. Having the drones here is also perfectly acceptable.

I liked the Eagle Eye. Two demonstrators were built as the TR911X and first flown in 1998. With some US Coast Guard interest, a single full size aircraft was built called the TR918 as demonstrator for them, the US Navy, and the US Marines. But it was the Coast Guard who expressed the most interest and they got funding for the program and began to design a full function aircraft to assist with SAR. It was going to be designated the HV-911. But sadly, the US Coast Guard placed funding on indefinite hold. I was sorry to see the USCG cancel that program.

I also like the Eagle Eye idea, would be a great range extender for SAG composed of "smaller" vessels. A F125 FFG or K130 could do pretty good stuff with those. I believe they could also be a usefull complement for LHD / LPDs maybe. Rather cheap and space safing, yet able to cover an extended security screen around the vessel.

Bell really has been in the rotary / vert lift market for a long time now, and with good success.
So, TerraN, is the V-280 one of the contenders for the JMR-M transport? Looks like a perfect Blackhawk replacement, although in that case the JMR-M attack would beed to be an entirely seperate design then, I would say.

Here's 3 more from Germany, just experimental ones. The first, the Dornier Do-29 was just a prove of concept plane which first flew in 1958 I think.



Next is the Dornier Do-31 a tactical jet transport with vectored main engines and additional lift engines at the tips. Those were to be discarded later once a more powerfull engine was available. The concept was from the mid sixties when NATO countries feared their runways could be disabled by soviet attacks and S/VTOL seemed like a viable solution.
The Do-31 was supposed to operate from the Autobahn.



And finally the VJ 101, a VTOL capable F-104G follow on. Like with the previous entry, prototype only. It was found the projects were really expensive and complex. And the requirements changed as well over time. So they were cancled. Nevertheless, especially the VJ101 demonstrated the capabilites it had. It flew just over Mach 1 without reheat.

The last two are not really tilt rotor aircraft. They are also the only ones I have seen, only in the factory and not flying, and are clearly extremely vulnerable to single engine failure while using ten resp. six engines. It was a wise decision to stop development.

Scratch said:

I also like the Eagle Eye idea, would be a great range extender for SAG composed of "smaller" vessels. A F125 FFG or K130 could do pretty good stuff with those. I believe they could also be a usefull complement for LHD / LPDs maybe. Rather cheap and space safing, yet able to cover an extended security screen around the vessel.

Bell really has been in the rotary / vert lift market for a long time now, and with good success.
So, TerraN, is the V-280 one of the contenders for the JMR-M transport? Looks like a perfect Blackhawk replacement, although in that case the JMR-M attack would beed to be an entirely seperate design then, I would say.

Click to expand...

It is a entry and in theory it could be configured for Attack, Sub scale Model of V280 Attack tiltrotor with 30mm Bushmaster cannon and Hellfire missiles

But Any winner of JMR would have to be used across all 5 US services and all 5 have some naval and aircraft shipping either existing now or emerging meaning it has to fold down particularly in the light, Medium transport and Attack roles.larger types like heavy and ultra class could self deploy. The V-280's configuration In my opinion does not favor storage aboard LHD or C17, It's Fuselage is fine but it's wings. There seems no previsions of folding the V tail would block any Osprey style Rotation and folding over or under is out as the engines are mounted at the end of the wings.
That's Why I favor the Defiant.
The rigid Coaxial rotor compound configuration is not perfect but reworking it for a ship would involve less structural redesign then Valor.

Here's 3 more from Germany, just experimental ones. The first, the Dornier Do-29 was just a prove of concept plane which first flew in 1958 I think.

Click to expand...

Yes a inverted Tiltrotor but the Rotors do tilt

Next is the Dornier Do-31 a tactical jet transport with vectored main engines and additional lift engines at the tips. Those were to be discarded later once a more powerfull engine was available. The concept was from the mid sixties when NATO countries feared their runways could be disabled by soviet attacks and S/VTOL seemed like a viable solution.
The Do-31 was supposed to operate from the Autobahn.

Click to expand...

This uses Thrust Vectoring meaning that although Osprey size it's not a Tilt rotor Although a interesting concept.

And finally the VJ 101, a VTOL capable F-104G follow on. Like with the previous entry, prototype only. It was found the projects were really expensive and complex. And the requirements changed as well over time. So they were cancled. Nevertheless, especially the VJ101 demonstrated the capabilites it had. It flew just over Mach 1 without reheat.

Click to expand...

Also not a Tilt Rotor but a tilt Jet Another concept of Vtol Platform that uses Jet engines on the wings to jump into the air

Was there ever a tilt rotor aquatic landing aircraft made?

sea planes mostly fell out of fashion by the Late 40's and when they were used it was mostly because of lack of space for a runway. Vtol eliminates the need for a runway and most tilt rotors are vtol