The recent award of the DARPA "SPRINT" contract to Bell-Textron and Aurora Flight Sciences for a high-speed Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) transport aircraft presents new and complex safety challenges. These developmental aircraft, which are required to reach speeds of 450 knots and operate from unprepared terrain, blur the lines between traditional fixed-wing and rotary-wing aviation. Existing safety paradigms, such as autorotation for helicopters and gliding for conventional aircraft, may not be applicable to these novel designs, which will likely resemble tilt-rotor or rotating-thrust configurations like the V-22 Osprey.

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The operational history of aircraft like the V-22, combined with the demand for higher speeds and operations in more challenging environments, raises critical questions about current safety assumptions. As complexity and speed increase, so does the potential severity of failure modes. The reliance on crash-worthy seating, a key safety feature in the V-22, may prove insufficient for future high-speed VTOL platforms. The unique flight envelopes of these aircraft, particularly during the transition between vertical and horizontal flight, could introduce new, high-risk failure scenarios not fully addressed by current safety systems.

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This case study will conduct a systems engineering analysis to explore the viability and necessity of crew and passenger escape systems for the next generation of high-speed VTOL transport aircraft. The study will examine the limitations of existing safety measures and investigate novel solutions to mitigate the inherent risks of these advanced designs.