Early in the LHX program (gave birth to the late lamented RAH-66 Comanche) the Army’s requirements were sufficiently aggressive and vague that Bell Aerospace held out hope that a tiltrotor might be chosen. So Bell designed a few single-seat “scout” tiltrotors under the BAT (Bell Advanced Tiltrotor) moniker. Most were more or less similar in configuration to the Bell XV-15, but one design – which I know solely from this one piece of art, published in 1983 – went a little further. The fuselage and tail surfaces were shaped to reduce the radar cross section, making the vehicle hopefully somewhat stealthier. Sadly, no diagrams or technical information for this configuration. If someone knows more, or has a better version of this artwork, by all mean let me know.
A single seat tiltrotor like this would have been a chore for the pilot to handle without the very latest in advanced computer controls, one of the reasons why single-seat tiltrotors were passed up in favor of two-seat helicopters. The rear of the fuselage seems to have some sort of signature-reducing exhaust, but it’s not clear what it’s exhausting; each nacelle has it’s own turboshaft with its own exhaust.
4 responses to “Bell LHX tiltrotor: Stealth edition”
perhaps the tail exhaust is some sort of booster engine for a higher level flight speed?
those black squares under the cockpit could be screened intakes, and I’m not seeing any sort of weapons bay..meaning some of that internal volume could be a 3rd engine?
just guesswork…
I would assume the black rectangles are either windows for the pilot or for options, but it’s hard to say. Without payload, it’s hard to see what the point of the vehicle would be.
I found this…
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/attachments/xbell-helicopter-textron-lhx-2-jpg.160302/
the sideview of the armed recon/anti-armor looks very similar, but it doesn’t explain the extra exhaust…
A civilian version of this thing would be really cool to have. If you were a billionaire and could afford it.