Novel Innovative Competitive Effective Tilt Rotor

Project coordinator
VERTAIR, Belgium.

Partners
University of Liege, Belgium; Centre de Recherche en Aeronautique ASBL, Belgium; SAMTECH S.A., Belgium; Paulstra SNC, France; Offi ce National d’Etudes et de Recherches Aerospatiales, France; Eurocopter, France; Eurocopter Deutschland GmbH, Germany; Deutsches Forschungszentrum fuer Luft und Raumfahrt e.V., Germany; ZF Luftfahrttechnik GmbH, Germany; Liebherr-Aerospace Lindenberg GmbH, Germany; Universitaet Stuttgart, Germany; Consorzio SICTA — Sistemi Innovativi per il Controllo del Traffi co Aero, Italy; Centro Italiano Ricerche Aerospaziali ScpA, Italy; AGUSTA SpA, Italy; Galileo Avionica SpA, Italy; Secondo Mona SpA, Italy; Politecnico di Milano, Italy; Sistemi Dinamici SpA, Italy; Mecaer Meccanica Aeronautica SpA, Italy; Riga Scientifi c Experimental Centre „Aviatest LNK”, Latvia; Stichting Nationaal Lucht en Ruimtevaartlaboratorium, Netherlands; Federal State Unitary Enterprise Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute named after Prof. N.E. Zhukovsky, Russian Federation; Sener Ingenieria y Sistemas, Spain; Fundacion Centro de Tecnologias Aeronauticas, Spain; Gamesa Desarrollos Aeronauticos, Spain; Castilla y Leon Aeronautica S.A., Spain; Westland Helicopters Ltd, United Kingdom; University of Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Aim of project
NICETRIP specifically addresses the acquisition of new knowledge on tilt-rotor through the development of appropriate technologies and the integration of these technologies with other technologies developed in preceding projects. Prototypes will be developed for extensive testing on a reduced scale in wind tunnels, and on a full scale on the ground. It is expected that the project will lead to the achievement of a major milestone in the tilt-rotor development process by demonstrating technological feasibility and by preparing the ground for further development on the way to a flying demonstrator. The aim of the project is to significantly contribute to the development of a European tilt-rotor demonstrator by achieving the industrial objective of acquiring, validating and integrating tilt-rotor technology for the benefit of the European aerospace and associated supplier industries.

Expected results
As an intermediate step before a demonstrator, the NICETRIP project objectives are:
To validate the European civil tilt-rotor concept based on the ERICA architecture;

To validate critical technologies and systems through the development, integration and testing of components of a tilt-rotor aircraft on full-scale dedicated rigs;

To acquire new knowledge on tilt-rotor through the development and testing of several wind tunnel models, including a large-scale full-span powered model;

To investigate and evaluate the introduction of tilt-rotors in the European Air Traffic Management System;

To assess the sustainability of the tilt-rotor product with respect to social and environmental issues and to define the path towards a future tilt-rotor flying demonstrator.