Word: 22a
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...outsize beer barrels draped over a discarded boxcar. But inside each barrel was a three-bladed propeller, and between two of them was a stubby wing. The boxcar fuselage contained some of the most complex machinery in the history of flight. The whole contraption was billed as the X-22A. Bell's contribution to the roster of V/STOL (Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing) airplanes...
...ducted 7-ft. fans that the X-22A uses as props are a futuristic blend of modern metallurgy and plastic engineering-fiber-glass blades with steel cores and nickel edges. The power behind those fans is a Rube Goldberg blend of engineering-four turbojet engines feeding a total of ten different gearboxes. The barrel-like ducts, along with their -big props, can be rotated by separate hydraulic motors. With the ducts horizontal and the props pointing forward, the X-22A should be capable of more than 300 m.p.h. in level flight; with ducts rotated to a vertical position, the ship...
...TILT ENGINES: Other aircraft designers prefer to keep their wings fixed and to swivel only the engine or the engine exhaust. The Curtis-Wright X-19 has four tillable engines on the tips of two stubby wings. The Bell X-22A has four tiltable propellers in circular ducts. Neither plane has yet completed successful tests, but two years ago the British were already flying the Hawker Siddeley P-1127, which has a single jet engine with 13,500 lbs. of thrust. During takeoff, the engine's exhaust gases are diverted downward, exerting enough thrust to lift the airplane...