The Naval Ship Research and Development Center, Bethesda, MD has operated this 6.7-foot diameter rotor successfully up through the critical transition-flight regime in one of its subsonic wind tunnels. A high-speed variant of the circulation control rotor in development at that time, this test rotor employed air blowing through slots in both leading and trailing edges of the blades. The Center reported that tests with this rotor paved the way for a 400-knot helicopter and for the X-Wing, a concept for a rotor aircraft potentially capable of flight at transonic speeds. From Vertiflite, November/December 1975 (page 18).
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Rotor test stand at the Naval Ship R&D Center, Bethesda, MD

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The Naval Ship Research and Development Center, Bethesda, MD has operated this 6.7-foot diameter rotor successfully up through the critical transition-flight regime in one of its subsonic wind tunnels. A high-speed variant of the circulation control rotor in development at that time, this test rotor employed air blowing through slots in both leading and trailing edges of the blades. The Center reported that tests with this rotor paved the way for a 400-knot helicopter and for the X-Wing, a concept for a rotor aircraft potentially capable of flight at transonic speeds. From Vertiflite, November/December 1975 (page 18).

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