This is totally non-sense : A Coax hellico is something much fragile. Not the kind of thing to venture in rough tracks...
Especialy is army ops.
And to consider that the props will do the gear is also non-productiv at all, especially in rought tracks. What a waste of power!

Ummm...
It\'s all cool and all, but \'ducted fan propulsion on the ground\'?
Dumb. Slow moving from a dead stop, poor acceleration (compared to wheel drive).
In almost any environment that has a bit of dust, that thing is going to be a highly visible target for days!
Still want one.

The ducted fans provide power in the air AND on the ground!!! The plumes of dust and crap blowing about behind it are going to be a bit of a tactical give-away, aren\'t they? Can\'t help feeling that selectable hydrostatic drive to the wheels might be a better option for ground operations, specially in off-road conditions where driven wheels are essential to maintain controllable progress. Hmmm!

Looks very fragile at ground level, prone to grenade, explosive, or bullet damage in the engines. Why are the tires not more protected? Also, this looks like an RPG-magnet.
I think the troops are at risk in this.

It may not be the best right now, but it is the best concept by far!

That seems a very expensive and non=protected way to transport 4 soldiers.

As others have commented the lack of direct drive will likely doom this concept to an R&D one off. The design team may correct this although it will increase the weight. The fragility issue of a flight weight vehicle is a more difficult issue so the vehicle will have a limited life. Part of the concept is to fly over and avoid the need for armor rather than being heavy enough to withstand armed assaults. With more and more power available more lightweight armor could be added but testing will show if the concept is viable at all.

AVX,,,,another pie in the sky (joke! )The guys who designed this will never be in one when the RPG start incoming !

Seems like yet another stylists \"sky hook\".

I\'d imagine the maintenance burden would be similar to normal helicopters at around 3 hours per hour of operation, probably more given the ground equipment and the hammering it would get cross country.

The ducted fan propulsion on the ground would be a total disaster as well, with the ducted fans needing to provide MORE than 50% of the vehicles mass in thrust to climb a 50% grade and more like 75% of the vehicles mass in static thrust to be able to match a traditional vehicles off road capability.

Additionally, I\'d imagine that over almost any terrain the debris kicked up by using a powerful ducted fan as a primary propulsion system would be seriously dangerous for anyone nearby. I don\'t imagine it would look too good for the US forces if their vehicles started killing people with rocks kicked up by the ducted fans.

A Concept only close to what should be achieved. Instead of a complicated helicopter a far simpler gyrocopter is a better solution: advantage: extremely simple rotor mechanics, also counter clockwise rotors, electric prerotator in between the rotors, pusher engines for flight like here, fully automated flight controls, electric wheel hub motors in the rear/all wheels, later with fuel cell engine instead of jet/combustion engine jump take off capability (