Flight Test Development XV-I Convertiplane

When asked to present a paper on the development and. flight testing of the XV-1 convertiplane, it became obvious from the start that it would be impossible to summarize this development in thirty minutes. It was also apparent that only a few of the development problems encountered could be adequately discussed in the time allotted. It was decided, therefore, to select some of the maJor developments on the XV-1 for discussion and to include more detail in the paper itself for those who are more personally interested. The second decision that had to be made was what pattern of presentation could. tell the story in a clear and informative way. The course taken in this respect finally resolved itself into selecting a particular component or set of components on the aircraft and to follow the evolution of that component from the date of roll-out in 1954 to what you would see today were the aircraft sitting in front of you.