Aviation: Beer Barrels Aloft

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The odd, ungainly craft rolled out by Bell Aerosystems last week looked like a collection of outsize beer barrels draped over a discarded boxcar. But inside each barrel was a three-bladed propeller, and between two of them was a stubby wing. The boxcar fuselage contained some of the most complex machinery in the history of flight. The whole contraption was billed as the X-22A. Bell's contribution to the roster of V/STOL (Vertical/Short Takeoff and Landing) airplanes.

The ducted 7-ft. fans that the X-22A uses as props are a futuristic blend of modern metallurgy and plastic engineering—fiber-glass blades with steel cores and nickel edges. The power behind those fans is a Rube Goldberg blend of engineering—four turbojet engines feeding a total of ten different gearboxes. The barrel-like ducts, along with their -big props, can be rotated by separate hydraulic motors. With the ducts horizontal and the props pointing forward, the X-22A should be capable of more than 300 m.p.h. in level flight; with ducts rotated to a vertical position, the ship should operate like a helicopter. If it all adds up to the impressive capabilities that were planned by computer and drawing board, the X-22A may point the way toward a new generation of short-haul transports.