The Agusta Westland “Project Zero,” all-electric tilt rotor technology demonstrator, manufactured in collaboration other Finmeccanica companies, Selex ES, Ansaldo Breda and Ansaldo Energia, and partner companies from Italy, UK, USA and Japan was officially unveiled on March 4. It took the manufacturers only 12 months to design, build and test the technology demonstrator, unveiling it prior to the Heli Expo 2013 in Las Vegas.

“Project Zero was a fast-paced complex project involving partners and suppliers across different time zones. Our partners worked with great enthusiasm under the leadership of AgustaWestland R&T Advanced Concepts Group to bring this revolutionary concept to life. This is the first time multiple subsidiaries in the Finmeccanica Group collaborated with so many innovative companies, outside of traditional aerospace industry, in one advanced demonstrator programme,” said Dr James Wang, Vice President of Research and Technology at AgustaWestland.

The entire aircraft exterior surface is carbon graphite and it was produced by Lola Composite in the UK. Sistemi Dinamici was instrumental to Project Zero by working closely with the AgustaWestland Advanced Concept Group on flight control system and rotor design. The technologies developed by each partner are being fed into their various industrial sectors to bring value to each company. Selex ES provided the high-integrity flight control computer and actuator control unit using software provided by wind river. Ansaldo Breda produced the electric motor inverter and motor control algorithm. Ansaldo Energia provided expertise on the alternative hybrid electric-diesel solution.

Lucchi R. Elettromeccanica has custom designed and built the axial flux permanent magnet electric motors. The aerodynamic properties of the rotor blades were designed by AgustaWestland and Rotor Systems Research LLC of USA. The composite structure for the blades, shrouds and spokes were designed by the Advanced Concepts Group and AgustaWestland Japan Asia Technology Center. The high bandwidth electromechanical actuators (EMA) for the innovative swashplateless individual blade control system were developed by Microtecnica. ORAL Engineering developed an efficient diesel engine for the alternative electrichybrid propulsion solution and provided rapid CNC machining for the rotor and drive system. MB Motorsport, Aerosviluppi and Marc’Ingegno customised the special motor cooling system, wiring harness and retractable landing gears, respectively.