Neither Helicopter Nor Airplane, Hybrid Eurocopter X3 Prototype Unveiled

Eurocopter publicly unveiled its mutant X3 prototype yesterday. A cross between a helicopter and an airplane -- but with none of the complexity of a tiltrotor like the V-22 Osprey -- the X3 is designed to combine the vertical capabilities of a chopper with the speed advantages of a fixed-wing prop plane. If moved to production, the X3 might compete against Sikorsky's no-less-bizarre X2, which unofficially set a new helicopter speed record earlier this month when it was clocked at 290 mph in level flight.

Black Horison summarizes the X3's highlights:

The aircraft was shown to reporters for the first time during a ceremony at Istres airbase in the south of France, where the X3 - short for High-speed, long-range Hybrid Helicopter -- has been undergoing testing since the beginning of September.

Clearly recycled from the fuselage of an EC155, the demonstrator is a compound design equipped with two turboshaft engines powering a five-bladed main rotor and two propellers on stub wings. At the rear, the fenestron has been removed and replaced with a standard tail plane and twin-vertical stabilisers fitted with rudders.

Eurocopter says this configuration allows it to offer the speed of a turboprop-powered aircraft as well as the capabilities of a helicopter. The X3 flew for the first time on 6 September from Istres AB -- the flight test base of the French armed forces -- 24km southwest of the Eurocopter factory at Marignane.

X3 flight test video, narrated by gentlemen with very satisfying German accents, follows:

Image: Eurocopter

Comments

[Ronin]

observed the last 1.5 mins ot the video

Eyeball the props and rudder.

A pair of jury struts under the stub wings would be good.

Will help to reduce the fluttering on the stub wings during hover and lateral turns

Can cancels the vertical fins (rudder fluttering too)
(Dynamic coupling effect from M/R and Props Vib's seem to induce rudder flutter?)
regards-
CRAZY Ronin

[Slag]

Jean-Michel Billig definitely has a French accent.