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A tiltwing
aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to fly by gaining support from the air. It counters the force of gravity by using either static lift or by using the dynamic lift of an airfoil, or in a few cases the downward thrust from jet engine ...
features a wing that is horizontal for conventional forward flight and rotates up for vertical takeoff and landing. It is similar to the
tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft which generates lift and propulsion by way of one or more powered rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shafts or nacelles usually at the ends of a fixed wing. Almost all tiltrotors use a tran ...
design where only the
propeller A propeller (colloquially often called a screw if on a ship or an airscrew if on an aircraft) is a device with a rotating hub and radiating blades that are set at a pitch to form a helical spiral which, when rotated, exerts linear thrust upon ...
and engine rotate. Tiltwing aircraft are typically fully capable of
VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-w ...
operations.Markman, Steve and Bill Holder. "Tilt-Wing VTOL Systems". ''Straight Up: A History of Vertical Flight''. Schiffer Publishing, 2000. . The tiltwing design offers certain advantages in vertical flight relative to a tiltrotor. Because the slipstream from the rotor strikes the wing on its smallest dimension, the tiltwing is able to apply more of its engine power to lifting the aircraft. For comparison, the
V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, tiltrotor military aircraft with both vertical takeoff and landing ( VTOL) and short takeoff and landing ( STOL) capabilities. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventi ...
tiltrotor loses about 10% of its thrust to interference from the wings. Another advantage of tiltwing aircraft is the ease of transition between VTOL and horizontal flight modes. A tiltrotor must first fly forwards like a helicopter, building airspeed until wing lift is sufficient to allow the nacelles to begin tilting down. As a note, the MV-22 Osprey's stall speed in airplane mode is . Conversely, a tiltwing aircraft can begin the transition from helicopter to airplane at zero forward airspeed. Because of this, the
Canadair CL-84 Dynavert The Canadair CL-84 "Dynavert", designated by the Canadian Forces as the CX-131, was a V/STOL turbine tiltwing monoplane designed and manufactured by Canadair between 1964 and 1972. Only four of these experimental aircraft were built with thre ...
was able to take off vertically, then accelerate from zero airspeed to in 8 seconds. However, the fixed wing of a tiltrotor aircraft offers a superior
angle of attack In fluid dynamics, angle of attack (AOA, α, or \alpha) is the angle between a reference line on a body (often the chord line of an airfoil) and the vector representing the relative motion between the body and the fluid through which it i ...
—thus more lift and a shorter takeoff roll—when performing
STOL A short takeoff and landing (STOL) aircraft is a conventional fixed-wing aircraft that has short runway requirements for takeoff and landing. Many STOL-designed aircraft also feature various arrangements for use on airstrips with harsh condit ...
/ STOVL operations. The main drawbacks of tiltwing aircraft are susceptibility to wind gusts in VTOL mode and lower hover efficiency. The wing tilted vertically represents a large surface area for crosswinds to push against. Tiltrotors generally have better hover efficiency than tiltwings, but less than helicopters. This is due to the difference in rotor disk loading. As of 2014, NASA is testing a diesel-electric hybrid 10-foot 10-rotor tiltwing called the GL-10 Greased Lightning, with most propellers folding during horizontal flight.Warwick, Graham. "Distributed power" ''
Aviation Week & Space Technology ''Aviation Week & Space Technology'', often abbreviated ''Aviation Week'' or ''AW&ST'', is the flagship magazine of the Aviation Week Network. The weekly magazine is available in print and online, reporting on the aerospace, defense and aviati ...
'' page 31, 25 August 2014. Accessed: 26 August 2014.


List of tiltwing aircraft

Tiltwing designs with rocket, jet, or propeller propulsion * Airbus A³ Vahana (2018) *
Canadair CL-84 Dynavert The Canadair CL-84 "Dynavert", designated by the Canadian Forces as the CX-131, was a V/STOL turbine tiltwing monoplane designed and manufactured by Canadair between 1964 and 1972. Only four of these experimental aircraft were built with thre ...
(1965) *
Hiller X-18 The Hiller X-18 was an experimental cargo transport aircraft designed to be the first testbed for tiltwing and V/STOL (vertical/short takeoff and landing) technology. Development Design work started in 1955 by Stanley Hiller Jr and Hiller ...
(1959) *
Kaman K-16B The Kaman K-16B was an experimental vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft that was constructed by Kaman Aircraft for the United States Navy in 1959 to evaluate the tiltwing concept. Converted from a Grumman Goose amphibian, the K-16B underwent ...
(1959) *
LTV XC-142 The Ling-Temco-Vought (LTV) XC-142 was a tri-service tiltwing experimental aircraft designed to investigate the operational suitability of vertical/short takeoff and landing (V/STOL) transports. An XC-142A first flew conventionally on 29 Septem ...
(1964) *
NASA GL-10 Greased Lightning The GL-10 Greased Lightning is a hybrid diesel-electric tiltwing unmanned aircraft. Development The wing has eight electric motor driven propellers while the horizontal stabilizer has two. In the future full-scale version, power will be genera ...
(2014) * Vertol VZ-2 (1957) * Weserflug P.1003 (1938)


See also

*
Thrust vectoring Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket, or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the ...
* Tailsitter *
Tiltrotor A tiltrotor is an aircraft which generates lift and propulsion by way of one or more powered rotors (sometimes called ''proprotors'') mounted on rotating shafts or nacelles usually at the ends of a fixed wing. Almost all tiltrotors use a tran ...
* Tiltjet * Coleopter *
VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-w ...


References

Aircraft configurations {{aviation-stub