XV-15 tilt-rotor to new Air and Space Museum site

Half helicopter, half airplane, the XV-15 tilt-rotor aircraft cut across blue skies Tuesday and hovered down at the new northern Virginia branch of the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.

The XV-15 was the first aircraft to take off, land and hover like a helicopter, with the ability to turn its twin rotors perpendicular to its wings and fly like a regular airplane.

With the handoff of the official flight log, the only remaining XV-15 was donated to the Smithsonian Institution by National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Army, which had used it for research since 1977. . .

The XV-15 is the first aircraft to land on the grounds of the new facility and immediately taxi into a display hangar. It takes its place alongside the Enola Gay, used to drop the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, in World War II. A supersonic Concorde, donated by Air France, arrived on museum grounds in June and is expected to move into the hangar this week.

The museum - formally known as the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center - opens to the public Dec. 15. It is about 25 miles west of Washington, near Washington Dulles International Airport.

Twenty-six years of XV-15 test flights helped hone the tilt-rotor technology used in the newer V-22 Osprey.

The new Air and Space Museum branch website is here; for more on the XV-15, look here.

Posted by David on September 16, 2003 8:44 PM