The Bell Helicopter Company demonstrated at the Heli-Expo 2017 the prototype helicopter, which will serve as a “road map for the future of helicopter technology.” This concept helicopter does not fly, it is designed to show the main directions that the company plans to work on in the coming years and decades. But the flying prototype of such a helicopter would look like this. The interior of the new helicopters will be made of soundproof materials, so passengers can talk to each other without headphones and microphones, and with the pilot to communicate through special glass in both taxis and limousines.
The company plans to get rid of the tail rotor even in a helicopter with a single rotor, compensating for the torque system inside the tail of the machine.
In the cockpit, the pilot controls the helicopter using a helmet of virtual reality and movements of hands in the air. There are no handles or steering wheel in the cockpit. The passengers will also have virtual reality systems, with which they can watch the movie during the flight, or vice versa, simply remove the cabin around them, revealing a stunning view of the sky and the ground below. Future helicopters will have varying screws that will change shape at different stages of the flight. The curved blades that you see in the picture are good for high-speed flight. They can also be extended to the full length for increased efficiency and speed.
