A look at tomorrow's civil tiltrotor

The present evaluation of the development status of the tilt-rotor VTOL aircraft concept proceeds to identify a large civilian market potential for vehicles of this type, especially along high commuter traffic density urban corridors. A variant of the V-22 tilt-rotor is judged to be of sufficient size for this high-density passenger market in the near term, provided that the rotor-drive system undergoes suitable modifications for more reliable one-engine-inoperative emergency operation. New, larger-than-V-22 and least-cost-optimized civil tilt-rotors carrying as many as 75 passengers are under study, but will require the construction of 'vertiports' at strategically advantageous urban locations.