Advanced Assembly Solutions for the Airbus RACER Joined-Wing Configuration

Compound helicopters, featuring lateral rotors as well as a primary rotor, are increasingly seen as the future of rotorcraft design. Capable of supporting a range of service applications, compound rotorcraft have the potential to deliver increased efficiencies and higher speeds relative to traditional rotorcraft. The Rapid And Cost Effective Rotorcraft (RACER) demonstrator is being developed by Airbus Helicopters (AH) to further validate the compound rotorcraft configuration. AH have chosen to employ a joined-wing design, which increases the stiffness relative to a traditional wing design. The RACER design also includes two lateral rotors, mounted aft of the Nacelles at the outboard extent of the wings, as depicted in Figure 1.