Bell-V280 "Heroic" tilt rotor aircraft jointly developed by Bell and Boeing
In December 2022, the US military-industrial complex successively exposed big news: the
B-21 "Ragger" stealth strategic bomber officially unveiled!
On December 5, Bell Company announced that it had won the largest helicopter procurement bid in the US Army in 40 years: the Bell V-280 "Heroic" tilt rotorcraft won the bid for "Future Long-range Assault Aircraft" (FLRAA)!
Chinese netizens know that we also benchmark the US B-21 stealth strategic bomber - Water Molecule H2O (H-20), the F-22 stealth fighter has J-20, and the F-35 has F-35 . So why not compare with the Bell-V280 model?
The editor of
will tell you that there are four reasons:
The first and most important reason is technically difficult.
Due to the constraints of technical background, scientific research strength and scientific research funding, China has tilted its investment in the development of fixed-wing aircraft in the past twenty years, so Y-20, C919, and J-20 can be released.
But helicopters are too much debt. Many models of helicopters are not mastered at present - such as coaxial twin-rotors (K-52), longitudinal twin-rotors (CH-47 Chinook), especially heavy helicopters. is currently jointly developed with Russia and has not yet made its first flight to . The latest public news found by the editor is . On June 7, 2022, the AC332 helicopter completed its cockpit design. Assessment, this marks the recognition of the AC332 helicopter cockpit design features and main display and control equipment functions by relevant pilots, laying a solid foundation for subsequent model development and related test verification. "
CH-47 longitudinal twin-rotor helicopter
, and the first flight of the US CH-47 prototype YHC-1B (later renamed CH-47A) was in September 1961, 61 years ago!
m-26 Heavy Helicopter
The former Soviet Union's heavy helicopter meter-26 was its first flight on December 14, 1977, and it is 45 years ago!
China has not yet fully mastered the heavy helicopter technology of the United States and the Soviet Union forty or fifty years or even sixty years ago, let alone the V-22 Osprey tilt rotorcraft that was only for the first time on March 19, 1989.
MV-22 Osprey tilt rotor aircraft equipped by the US Marine Corps should be taken step by step, and the meal should be eaten at a bite. Good foundations such as fixed-wing aircraft strive to catch up on the curve, but some projects with weak foundations do not have to force to overtake .
The second reason is that the national conditions and military conditions are different. The important thing for China at present is to make up for its shortcomings.
China has the strategic transport aircraft Y-20B that has replaced its own "big wine barrel" engine, the only J-20 two-seater stealth fighter in service in the world, and the H2O that everyone knows exists, but has been eager to show up.
But China just doesn’t have heavy helicopters like CH-47 and Mi-26! Especially in the western border, India was at a disadvantage - India originally equipped with a large amount of Russian Mi-8/M-17/M-171 helicopter , but India spent $1.1 billion to buy 15 CH-47Fs.
China also has a lot of Mi-8/M-17/M-171 series helicopters equipped, and the Air Force and the Army Aviation are said to have as many as 500, but China has only 4 Mi-26s, all of which are among the people, and the military does not have a single one.
AC332 heavy helicopter diagram
So for China, the most urgent task is to make up for this shortcoming as soon as possible, rather than taking unnecessary risks to develop tilt rotorcraft . You should know that the development time of the V-22 Osprey lasted from 1981 to 1989, and after a long test, it was not officially delivered to the US military for service until November 2006. Several crashes occurred during the 15-year improvement and testing process of " Osprey ".
The third reason is that the combat needs are different. The "charming" of Osprey MV-22 and Bell V280 are not the
. Are the performance of Osprey MV-22 and Bell V280 tilt rotor aircraft that our army urgently needs at this stage? Or not advance?
has good performance and is very advanced! Comparison of combat radii of
MV-22B and CH-46E
The biggest advantage of tilt rotor aircraft such as Osprey MV-22 and Bell V280 is that it is fast speed and has a large combat radius.
Osprey MV-22B has a maximum speed of 509 km/h, a usage ceiling of 7925 meters and a range of 1760 kilometers.
Bell V280 has a maximum flight speed of 560 km/h, a maximum range of 1480 km, and a maximum load capacity of 5.44 tons. In contrast, the UH60 Black Hawk has a maximum flight speed of 280 km/h, a maximum range of 600 km and a maximum load of 4.54 tons.
Bell V280 is twice the speed of the Black Hawk, and the range is 2.5 times the Black Hawk!
Due to global delivery needs, such as the US Marine Corps’ requirements for direct flight from the second island chain of , to participate in the war, so they attach great importance to the large range and high speed of the Osprey and V280.
But for the Chinese army, the current main task is the southeast coast and the western border. Whether it is the straight-20 or the 171, it meets the requirements of flying to Taipei or New Delhi .
Zhi-20 can reach 300 kilometers per hour, combat radius is greater than 400 kilometers, practical ceiling is 6,000 meters, maximum take-off weight is greater than 10 tons, and maximum range is about 800 kilometers.
The Mi-171SH of the PLA Air Force Search and Rescue Force can have a maximum range of 1,200km when the external hangers are all fully hung, and the combat radius can reach 420km.
As for tasks that require fast speed, our fixed-wing transport aircraft can perform. After all, our army can use the transport aircraft parachute paratrooper ZBD-03 tank to ensure that it will arrive at the battlefield faster than the Osprey MV-22.
airborne tank ZBD-03 landed instantly
In addition, although at this stage, due to technical reasons, the importance of filling in the shortcomings, and the need for global delivery capabilities for the time being, China has not chosen to develop a tilt rotor aircraft.
But this does not mean that we have done nothing. China is also making technical reserves on tilt rotor aircraft, and is gradually advancing according to the principle of easy first and difficult. For example, Rainbow Company launched the Rainbow-10 small unmanned tilt rotor aircraft.
Chinese version of "Bell V280"
, which was unveiled at the Zhuhai Air Show, so in the near future, China's tilt rotor aircraft will appear!
