BA609 Tiltrotor

[blave 0]

(I posted this today in the www.flight.com product forum, as a request for them to "do" this aircraft. I thought I'd post a copy here as well...)The BA609 has made its first flight (http://www.bellagusta.com/html/newsPress/2003_0307_pr.html, and it occurs to me that this would be a very interesting aircraft to model in FS. It would satisfy both the fixed-wing and fling-wing set... Thus far no commercial FS company has done a helicopter, and this might be a great place to start. Just think: vertical takeoff, cruises at >250kts, a 25000' ceiling,6 to 9 pax. Wouldn't it be grand?Data and photos: http://www.bellagusta.com/html/theAircraft/ba_609/index.htmlDave BlevinsKRHV

[wsieffert 0]

Well, maybe Bell can get a civil version going but all the Marine Corps V-22's have been grounded again. This time for hydraulic lines.

[blave 0]

Yeah, I know. Everybody has their opinion about the V22, but I have decided in my own little brain that the tiltrotor is unsuitable for at least part of what the Marines/etc. want to use it for - e.g. troop/resource insertion into the battlefield. I just can't see how a very expensive aircraft, that has to be flown "just so" to keep it out of trouble (e.g. vortex ring state, which is what caused that one acccident that killed a bunch of people a while back), can work in a high risk, high intensity situation like that. Also, I'm not positive about this but I don't believe it can autorotate either, or at least not very well...But the civilian application is another beast entirely... For certain applications (not many) it might make sense - I'm thinking of executive/rich person transport in the Big Apple, for instance. I think it would be a lot of fun to simulate such things in FS - although I'm not a virtual airline participant I would think those guys would eat something like this up.It will certainly be interesting to see how the 609 test program goes, and how the 609 will fare from a market perception standpoint if the V22 program is indeed shut down.There has been endless V22 discussion on the rec.aviation.rotorcraft newsgroup - interested folks can use groups.google.com to look for those. Also, there is a current discussion on the PPRUNE rotorhead forum... http://www.pprune.org/forums/forumdisplay.php?forumid=23As a matter of fact that discussion is what prompted my posts about wanting an FS2002 model for the 609.cheers,dB.P.S. in my "research" while writing this, primarily w.r.t. whether or not the V22 can autorotate, I came across an interesting document - apparently a letter from a retired general type tht is trying to get the V22 program shut down: http://www.g2mil.com/DunnLetter.pdf

[Guest Airprox]

I fly for a helicopter VA, and when we saw the FS2002 V22 come out we got very excited, unfortunatly the flight dynamics weren't up to the task (inherent FS fault), even with .air tweeking (which I'm not very good at). The problem lies in not been able to get the aircraft to act like a fixed wing in the cruise, but also hover; that said, the FS2000 version when operated in FS2000 acted alot better, alas it doesn't work in FS2002.

[1mikel151 71]

I agree, the V22 that came out was a great looking machine, but the flight dynamics had a long way to go. I myself tweaked it as well and still could not get a stable flight out of it, shame as it was a great model.Regards, Michaelhttp://mysite.verizon.net/res052cd/mybannercva1.jpg

[Guest]

Well, there's always the X-35B, I suppose, although it is less for rotorheads than the V22.Here, let me stream a movie for you . . . ;-)http://easylink.playstream.com/apsey/sfx35b.wax