DARPA (Heavy) Lift Challenge

[GliderRider]

DARPA, the American 'Defense Advanced Research Project Agency' sponsored a competition, held last week to find future methods of heavy vertical lift aviation.

The competition which took place last week, was to lift vertically at least for times the aircraft's mass, then fly it around a five mile circuit. It was open to industry large and small as well as private teams and individuals.

Of the one hundred entries, a lot are based around typical multi-rotor drone layouts, however some very unorthodox entries have also emerged; Sherman Aerospace's being one of them.

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|https://forums-images.pistonheads.com/518673/202608108217068[/url]

The competition

Feel free to post info/videos etc. of other entries.

[rodericb]

whoa.


Wouldn't want to be the pilots...............! j/k


A couple of the comments summed it up very nicely:

It's a tipjet helicopter where the helicopter is replaced by cables and the tipjets are replaced by airplanes.

so it's basically a helicopter, except you put the motor on the blades and only used the outside part of the blade, since the inside part is not efficient anyways

[Simpo Two]

rodericb said:

whoa.


Wouldn't want to be the pilots...............! j/k


A couple of the comments summed it up very nicely:

It's a tipjet helicopter where the helicopter is replaced by cables and the tipjets are replaced by airplanes.

so it's basically a helicopter, except you put the motor on the blades and only used the outside part of the blade, since the inside part is not efficient anyways

I seem to remember that back in the 1950s or thereabouts somebody designed a similar machine lifted by four helicopters connected by a giant metal frame. IIRC it developed a terminal vibration and crashed.

[rodericb]

Simpo Two said:

I seem to remember that back in the 1950s or thereabouts somebody designed a similar machine lifted by four helicopters connected by a giant metal frame. IIRC it developed a terminal vibration and crashed.

Yeah, that rings a bell. I think I've seen one (on the internet or a documentary on telly) which was two or three of what looked like Sikorski S58's bolted to a lifting frame. From the 1950's or so. Needless to say it didn't go well....

[GliderRider]

Simpo Two said:

rodericb said:

whoa.


Wouldn't want to be the pilots...............! j/k


A couple of the comments summed it up very nicely:

It's a tipjet helicopter where the helicopter is replaced by cables and the tipjets are replaced by airplanes.

so it's basically a helicopter, except you put the motor on the blades and only used the outside part of the blade, since the inside part is not efficient anyways

I seem to remember that back in the 1950s or thereabouts somebody designed a similar machine lifted by four helicopters connected by a giant metal frame. IIRC it developed a terminal vibration and crashed.

That was the Piasecki PA-97 Helistat built in 1986. A 1950s ex-US Navy dirigible envelope on a frame supporting four Sikorsky S-58/H-34 helicopters (minus tailrotors) of similar vintage. From the report it developed ground resonance, which they tried to overcome by taking off, but it got worse in the air and broke up. It had already had a few successful flights.

Edited by GliderRider on Friday 14th August 17:38

Edited by GliderRider on Saturday 15th August 11:42

[rodericb]

Thanks. I was thinking it was Piasecki as they were into heavy lift but I wasn't googling good enough. Ha ha I thought it was a 1950s thing but lo and behold it was only "recently" (1980's....).