Karem Aircraft Offers Transformable Attack Copter as US Army’s New Helicopter

Karem Aircraft offers a transformable attack copter searching for the US Army's next attack helicopter in a significant contract.

Karem Aircraft Offers Transformable Attack Copter for the Army

To get the okay of those choosing the winner of the future lift vehicles, this AR-40 features a design with distinctive features, reported Vertical Mag.

This is not traditional but radically different because it can transform when hovering, but it shifts to an airplane-like configuration once it gains speed. Focusing on creating an "optimal-speed" tiltrotor technology, an improved rotor pitch/ angle for better efficiency while airborne.

Most of the development is done with Army projects, including the Joint Multirole Technology Demonstration, which is all part of the Future Vertical Lift umbrella (JMR-TD). Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) program uses that optimal-speed technology in its entrant to the contract cited Defense News.

On the ongoing competition is a $738 million design development contract for the first FARA conceptual work. The firm is cooperating with Northrop Grumman and Raytheon to develop what is their prototype.

When the aerospace firm entered the competition, it was assumed the company might propose a tiltrotor. Still, the Army's requirement that the aircraft be only 40 feet by 40 feet made that configuration impractical, according to FARA program manager Thomas Berger.

The AR-40's tail rotor has a swivel; in hover mode, it orients the hub to one side, functioning as a conventional helicopter tail rotor. This tail rotor points aft and then becomes a pusher propeller whenever the aircraft converts to fast forward flight as Karem Aircraft offers a transformable attack copter compared to others.

With tilting wings to complement the 40-foot diameter main rotor, that is b the largest among FARA competitors. Rotors, like fixed wings, create higher lift the larger and longer they are, said the manager.

He added that having optimal-speed tilt rotors are the best options to accomplish VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing), including getting fast forward airspeed and efficiency. Mentioning that the very particular requirement that FARA fit into a 40-foot space is one more consideration to take into account, remarked Darpa.

Designers decided to fit their design based on what the US Army dictates. Instead of using two rotors at 20-feet long, it will be a 40-foot rotor rather. But a tiltrotor cannot fix a 40 feet box, not by a longshot.

No metal has been bent for the prototype yet, nor has it performed wind tunnel tests on a scale model, but he claims that it has completed an extensive digital simulation of its design. It's stockpiling the materials and parts, "predicting a positive downselect, and an expectation to match the government/Army timetable for the project," remarked the company.

Just one of five competitors for the FARA contract. The Sikorsky Raider X derived on the S-97 Raider coaxial-rotor prototype, the Bell Invictus tandem conventional helicopter, the AVX/L3 Compound Coaxial Helicopter (CCH), as well as a Boeing Phantom Works design that the firm refuses to disclose are the entrants.

By March 2020, the Army intends to choose two teams to develop prototypes in anticipation of a government-sponsored fly-off in 2023.