Blogs

I struggled with weather or not to post this idea. I determined that there is a big gap between an idea and a flyable aircraft. (even an RC one) That being said, there is a lot of value in expressing ideas and getting feedback. I have decided to think of this project as an "open-source" project. After all, what good is an idea if one just keeps it to themselves?

I have included an overview Vertical-to-Horizontal flight system to make the transformation from one mode to the other. Some refinement will be needed as the design matures. I can already tell that stability and control during the flight transformation process will be less than graceful. 

Here are some photos of other transforming VTOL aircraft. (Most of which are UAV systems due to the difficulty in moving a person around inside something with so much flight instability). These vehicles were chosen because they have all been flow in in prototype form. There is a huge gap in credibility between making a computer model, and a flying prototype. 

This is called the FlexRotor by Aerovel. It has a large propeller to lift it vertically from the tail-sitting position. The little props on the wing tips act as anti-torque rotors. It has a high disk loading since it is supporting its weight on a propeller and its cruise efficiency is somewhat reduced by the fact that the prop and engine are over sized to allow for VTOL. This means the weight is higher than it would be if it only flew horizontally. 

These vehicles, the S-25, D-150 and K-200 UAVs by AERIE, are similar in concept to my design. They utilize a flipping wing with rotors on them. The wings can face opposite directions and the propellers will cause the plane to spin. the wings then generate lift. Once in flight the wings can flip back to aligned and the vehicle can fly like a traditional twin propeller airplane. AERIA claims they can get 24 hours out of these vehicles.

This is the Navy Research Labs "Stop-Rotor". This helicopter has a wing that flips over and locks in place to go from a helicopter to an airplane. The propeller in the back has a rudder behind it to act as an anti-torque rotor during horizontal flight. 

This cool vehicle is the "Dos Samara", named after the Samara seed which spins as it falls from its parent tree. This plane is similar to the stop rotor in that the props act as lifting rotors (like a helicopter) then lock to act as lifting wings in horizontal flight. This (more elegant IMO) design has counter-weighted single-bladed rotors on the tip of each wing. This means that there is no flipping of wings. The blades simply stop rotating and add lift in forward flight. The blades spin in opposite directions which means no anti-torque is required either. The downsides here are that you have to transfer a lot of power into two rotating structures. That little propeller in the back must use a lot less power than the lifting rotors. That means you have to carry around a lot of unusable engine and transmission weight when in horizontal flight.