The Tiltrotor

Welcome to Shephard Studio’s Revolutions in Vertical Flight, brought to you in partnership with Bell.

The Revolutions in Vertical Flight podcast tells the little-known story of the history of rotorcraft, from the autogiro and helicopter, to the tiltrotor and eVTOL platforms in development today. 

Revolutions in Vertical Flight reveals the stories of a small group of pioneers, the visions and beliefs that drove them, and their approach to invention and innovation.

And the Shephard Studio podcast series looks at the vertical flight innovation underway today, revealing how it will transform military operations and revolutionise urban mobility.

In this episode, we look at a persisting dream of the early rotorcraft pioneers – how to build a machine that combined the vertical takeoff and landing attributes of a helicopter with the speed and range advantages of a fixed-wing aircraft.

We hear how a failed military mission in the Iranian desert ultimately led to the creation of the V-22 Osprey tiltrotor. And how Leonardo plans to bring the tiltrotor design to the civil market with its AW609.