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This is um....ambitious.

U.S. Army Awards Carter Data Collection Contract
Wichita Falls, TX - Carter Aviation Technologies (Carter) of Wichita Falls, TX, announced at a Press Conference on April 16th at the Sun ‘n Fun Fly-in Convention that they have received a data collection contract from the U.S. Army Research, Development & Engineering Command under the direction of the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Ft. Eustis, VA. The contract was finalized on March 24, 2004 and has a potential value of $1,000,000. The U.S. Army is interested in gathering further data on Carter’s Slowed-Rotor/Compound (SR/C) Aircraft Technology. The 18-month contract is an effort to acquire and analyze an experimental database to assess the viability of SR/C helicopter concepts for achieving significant increases in range and speed for future rotorcraft systems.

Carter’s prototype aircraft, the CarterCopter Technology Demonstrator (CCTD), will be the flight test vehicle for the research program. Carter began test flights of their SR/C technology using the CCTD in 1998. Data collected over the last five years through the test flight operations strongly supports the viability of Carter’s revolutionary technology. However, in addition to determining whether the SR/C technology can provide significant increases in range and speed over conventional helicopters, the army wants to determine if there are any associated flight limitations. The technical parameters of primary importance are the lift over drag ratios of the rotor and rotorcraft and the propeller efficiency over a range of operating conditions.

The technology study focuses on three specific areas.

Carter’s preliminary engineering studies show that their technology is scalable from an unmanned aerial vehicle design up to a heavy-lift transport that can be configured for military or commercial use. The Carter Heavy-lift Transport (CHT) design is the size of a C-130J with the capability to carry 130 troops or three stryker vehicles. The commercial version would be configured to carry 120 passengers. Both aircraft would have VTOL and hover capabilities. The range and speed of the CHT would be superior to current helicopters with increased safety factors due to the combined rotor and fixed-wing technologies.

In making the announcement of the new contract, Jay Carter, Jr., President of Carter Aviation Technologies, commented, “This is a major advancement toward the recognition of the value of our technology. Our technology is breaking new ground and like many unconventional developments, our’s drew skepticism. Carter is a very small company that was virtually unknown until five years ago. Coverage of our flight-test program and a public flight of the CarterCopter helped raise our visibility. We are now slowly gaining interest and acceptance within the industry. Integrating our technology into the marketplace will have a monumental impact not only on military services, but on the commercial and private sectors, as well.”

Carter is currently working on a DARPA contract for further studies and evaluations of their next generation rotor and propeller design. Results from these studies should be available to DARPA within the next few months.

Although Carter built a prototype aircraft to prove their SR/C theoretical data in flight-testing, Carter intends to remain a research and development company. Once their technology is proven it will be licensed to other companies for manufacture. Carter currently has a landing gear prototype being tested on a new autogyro design. The test results will provide data comparisons of the Carter gear with the previous stock gear over a series of strength and impact tests. This is the first use of Carter technology targeted for commercial manufacture.

Test Aircraft Properties including weight and balance, design and dimensional data, and rotor and propeller structural and aerodynamic data.
Flight Performance Data and Analysis including 80 channels of information collected during flight. Flight data will be monitored in both gliding flight (power off, propeller feathered) and level (powered) flight to isolate the rotor and propeller contributions to flight performance.
Handling Qualities Data and Analysis to include calibration checks on instrumentation before and after data flights and doublet control tests to obtain data which is suitable for system identification of the aircraft against the appropriate current airworthiness standards.


"Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction"

Ronald Reagan

If I'm not mistaken, this concept occupies the 10:00 o'clock position on the VSTOL wheel of misfortune. Maybe it combines some other features too. It is difficult to be original in this field. It is even more difficult to be successful. Good luck to 'em.

<img src="http://www.vstol.org/wheel/miniwheel.jpg" border=0>

<img src="http://www.aeronautics.ru/img003/rotodyne04.jpg" border=0>

<img src="http://www.aeronautics.ru/img003/rotodyne01.jpg" border=0>

THE CRAPTOR ENGINEERING TEAM <img src=icon_smile_big.gif border=0 align=middle>
"The F-22...It's the poo"



Edited by - a10stress on Jul 29 2004 09:54 AM

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