Leonardo Aerospace Group (Italy) has just announced the idea of a new generation tilt-rotor aircraft called ATA-NXM, aimed at improving aerodynamic performance and expanding its applicability in the future military aviation field.
ATA-NXM (Advanced Tiltrotor Aircraft – Next Generation Military) is designed to address a long-standing question in the aviation industry which is which configuration will be most optimal for tilt-rotor aircraft. According to the manufacturer, the new design has many notable changes compared to previous aircraft lines.
The outstanding difference lies in the engine position. Instead of being placed near the tip of the wing as in traditional designs, the ATA-NXM engine is located closer to the inner edge of the wing.
This change helps improve aerodynamic efficiency, simplify the transmission system and reduce the load on the propeller, thereby improving operational efficiency throughout the flight.
The design also integrates straight wings extending outside the propeller position. According to engineers, this structure helps increase stability when the aircraft switches to forward flight mode. In addition, the nose of the aircraft is also supplemented with small wings to improve control and aerodynamic stability.
ATA-NXM is oriented as a scalable tilt-rotor helicopter platform. According to Leonardo's announcement, the design can reach a maximum take-off weight of 8 to 18 tons, suitable for many different military missions.
Mr. Matteo Ragazzi, Senior Vice President of Engineering and Innovation at Leonardo, said the project aims to find the maximum development limit of tilt-rotor aircraft technology. According to him, this could be an important step in shaping a new generation of aircraft for the military.
The introduction of ATA-NXM took place in the context of Leonardo continuing to develop other tilt-rotor aircraft programs.
Among them is the NGCTR project, which is a new generation civil tilt-rotor helicopter program, with an advanced "transformer" wing structure and a modern flight control system. To date, the prototype of NGCTR has completed about 30 minutes of flight testing.
In addition, Leonardo is also developing the Leonardo AW609 model, a civilian tilt-rotor aircraft that can reach a maximum speed of about 270 knots/hour (equivalent to about 500 km/hour). This project has been researched and developed for more than 30 years and is still awaiting certification from the US Federal Aviation Administration.
Although ATA-NXM is currently only at the idea stage, Leonardo said that this design can use existing jet engines on the market. As a result, the development time can be shortened by up to 50% compared to previous tilt-rotor aircraft programs.
