Or is it peanut butter in my chocolate?

 

Some want a helicopter in Flight. Some want a twin engine passenger/cargo plane with good range. Now Microsoft can do it with one aircraft. Check out the Large Civil Tilt Rotor program at NASA Ames Research Center.

 

If I can't have a Solar Impulse, I'd like one of these.

 

Yeah, I know, there's the Osprey and a few prototypes out there, but, 90 passengers for 1000 nm at 300 knots!!! If anyone can solve the performance and low speed stability problems with tilt rotors, I figure the NASA Ames scientists are the ones. Also, for this project, the goal is a disk loading of 16 lb/ft^2 (unlike the V22's of almost 21), so it won't be quite so tornado-like for take off and landing. (Just tropical storm-like...)

 

Check out some of the papers linked to from the bottom of that reference page for more details.

Very interesting idea and would be a lot of fun to master. But I really doubt we will see anything like this anytime soon. in FLIGHT.

I wouldn't fly in one of those , if you paid me, As was stated,it is similar to the Boeing Osprey. a POS in my opinion. You can't dead stick it if you have engine problems, and you can't auto rotate it either. It is a mechanical nightmare. Thanks but no thanks.... http://www.boeing.co...t/military/v22/

Well, the Osprey does have a cross-over driveshaft so either engine can drive both rotors if one fails.

 

But yeah, I ain't getting in one, either. There is just too much that can go wrong and not enough you can do about it when it happens.