Jul 032011
A piece of artwork from the Bell archives showing a minimally-modified X-22 as a ground attack vehicle. The X-22 was surprisingly small, and if armed probably would have been capable of carrying much the same ordnance as the AH-1 Cobra.
It’s shown here with two trainable gun pods, an offset underside turret (looking not unlike the turret used on early Cobras) and a single deployable rocket pod.
2 Responses to “Ground Attack X-22 artwork: 1”
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I like the gear pods with guns in them, sounds like something the Soviets would have come up with ( they did podded 23mm cannons that could swivel down for strafing.)
The turret doesn’t look like any I’ve ever seen on a Cobra, but it does sort of look like the one on the Bell Sioux they modified as an armed attack helicopter to try out the concept as the Bell 207 Sioux Scout:
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_207.php
Or is it supposed to resemble the one on the Bell D-225 Iroquois Warrior?:
http://www.aviastar.org/helicopters_eng/bell_d-255.php
The X-22 looked like it had some advantages over other rotor-driven VTOL concepts at the time; not only would the ducted props give higher lift efficiency, but would also cut down noise, and hide the blades from Doppler radar detection when in the vertical lift position.
The real advantage though is that the aircraft could lift off, hover, or land in a forested area without the worry of having the ducted blades running into tree branches and being damaged.
Now, if you put _two_ ducted fans on it instead of four, you not only simplify and lighten the drive train a lot, but you’re ready to head for Pandora. 🙂