Bell Helicopter has initiated an engineering study with a number of partners for a rather unconventional aircraft that designers say would be especially well suited to urban operations. The Bell X-Hawk would feature two shrouded main rotors in tandem configuration, fore and aft, and two smaller shrouded rotors acting as thrusters. Although Bell is targeting military applications, a civil variant is under consideration by its partners. A full-size demonstrator should fly in 2009.
But first, a smaller UAV variant is scheduled to be built and test flown sometime next year. The single-engine Mule will be able to ferry equipment to disaster areas or battlefields as well as extract wounded soldiers, according to Rafi Yoeli, president and CEO of Urban Aeronautics, an Israeli company that has partnered with Bell on the military project and is pursuing development of a civil version on its own.
