Civil Tiltrotor for Public Service

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I. There is a need for an improved national transportation system that would benefit public service

II. Study of public service market

III. Each mission has a slightly different set of requirements

I. There is a need for an improved national transportation system that would benefit public service

National Transportation System Need: Improved Mobility

Studies project large increases in the demand for air travel by the year 2000:

• 74 percent increase in passenger enplanements in the United States
• 32 percent increase in the number of jet transports in the United States

Among today’s most congested airports are the ten busiest airports in the United States, which together handle a third of all passenger enplanements. Capacity shortfall airports are prime candidates for onsite vertiports.

Yet only three runways will be added to these busiest airports before the turn of the century, and only one new airport is expected to be built (at Denver). The problems are the pervasive consumption of land, environmental impact, opposition to aircraft noise, and cost.

More airplanes will be competing for increasingly scarce runway slots. Passengers will experience delays more often and for longer periods of time. Delays are already a serious problem, especially in the crowded northeast corridor of the United States. Delays at the airport are compounded by worsening delays on roads leading to the airport.

A major contributor to airport congestion is that many people are flying short distances on relatively small aircraft. The commercial tiltrotor aircraft can help reduce airport congestion and traffic delay problems by:

• Using on-airport vertiports to siphon off short-haul connecting travelers, thereby freeing runways slots for larger aircraft.
• Using off-airport vertiports for urban area to urban area and city center to city center service, diverting travelers away from crowded hub airports and their access roads.
• Allowing passengers to experience portal-to-portal time savings, thereby improving their mobility and efficiency.
• Extending a congested airport’s useful life without major investment in air-side facilities.
• Enhancing capacity with tiltrotor aircraft, expected to be environmentally friendly, compared to other means of enhancing capacity.
• Maintaining air service to smaller communities, preserving access and mobility benefits to those communities.

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II. Study of public service market

In the public service market, the customer is the general public, and the costs are borne by the community. Primary missions includes police and fire department support, medical transport, drug enforcement, Coast Guard search and rescue, and border patrol.

For the public at large, the tiltrotor offers improved service in terms of flexibility and speed while at the same time reducing the sound levels and possibly the number of aircraft needed to do the same work.

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III. Each mission has a slightly different set of requirements

Drug Enforcement

For drug enforcement work, speed, range, and endurance are critical, as is the ability to takeoff and land vertically from unimproved surfaces. The mission involves interception and pursuit of drug dealers on the ground as well as in the air, in all types of weather, and usually with very little advance warning.

Key to the mission success is having the right kind of aircraft available when needed. Because of the tiltrotor's high speed, hover capability, and good dependability, it is nearly ideal for the role—and can supplant both fixed-wing and helicopter aircraft.

Medical Transport

Emergency medical transport is a rapidly growing sector of helicopter use. About 150 EMS programs exist in the U.S., transporting a total of 85,000 patients per year, including 6000 to 7000 in life critical situations.

Tiltrotors speed and range can reduce transit time and the number of patient transfers required.

With the flexibility to land vertically in relatively small cleared areas, the tiltrotor can pick up the patient close to the initial site of medical intervention. Pressurization and a good ride quality will enhance the ability of the medical attendants to accomplish their tasks and provide a stable environment for the patient. At twice the speed of a helicopter, the patient can be transferred to a major medical facility where proper follow-on care can be administered. With a range in excess of 600 nmi at the lighter mission weights of a medical transport role, the service area of a sponsoring hospital can be dramatically increased, meaning increased revenues for that facility.

Coast Guard

Coast Guard search and rescue missions provide an excellent market for tiltrotors. Between 1979 and 1983, the USCG launched more than 145,000 aircraft rescue missions.

The tiltrotor's range and speed make it ideal for search and rescue. It has a long airborne time, which will improve the ability to patrol areas for survivors, and its ability to fly in all weather conditions (generally bad during rescue missions) and to hover without severe downwash effects would improve rescue efforts.

Police

Police applications would be in the area of long-range prison transfer, high-priority personnel transport, and for patrol, search and rescue, and ambulance missions. The tiltrotor's versatility is an important attribute for the diversity of police missions.

Another potential new mission that relates to the tiltrotors range capability is long-range surveillance of remote terrain.

Fire

Fire departments use VTOL aircraft for command and control, rescue, search, and VIP transport. In most cases, a small tiltrotor would be an ideal substitute for helicopters, especially where range, speed, and endurance are important. For the fire rescue mission, where large numbers of people are in volved, a larger tiltrotor could be used.

Smoke jumping is another ideal mission for the aircraft because of its favorable downwash pattern and hovering capability, allowing rappelling or parachuting into the path of a forest fire.

Disaster Relief

An additional public role is disaster relief. Tiltrotors for this role would be drawn from available fleets in an area (police, fire, drug enforcement, even military).

For moving large numbers of people from the scene of man-created or natural disasters, the tiltrotor's speed and VTOL capability make it ideal. The tiltrotor could also move supplies and machines into stricken areas rapidly.

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