By Chris Stonor
Southern Californian, PteroDynamics, is presently developing an eVTOL aircraft design based on a very unique concept, reports transportup.com.
Named the Transwing eVTOL, the PteroDynamics’ aircraft has a patented folding wing design, where “propellers on propulsion pods are distributed down a set of wings that can fold back on dihedral pivot points along the wing.”
This folding mechanism is controlled by rods attached to actuators on the main body and when the wings are completely folded, the props point upward, in a similar configuration to a standard multi-copter design.
Compared to a tilt-rotor, where the cabin must tilt in order to travel horizontally, the Transwing is described as “aerodynamically benign”, meaning there is no loss of control at any stage of the wing’s transition from folded to extended.
Potentially, this allows for both the compact size of a standard tilt-rotor eVTOL and the efficiency and control from a fixed wing aircraft with a broad wingspan, meaning that the Transwing has all the advantages of most standard compact eVTOLs as well as the larger, fixed-wing designs with few to none of the drawbacks from either.
According to the company’s website, “Transwing aircraft have much greater range, endurance, and cargo carrying efficiency as compared to all other VTOL designs.” And “given any aircraft footprint size and payload requirements, Transwing aircraft will fly several times as far as any VTOL competitor.”
To date, PteroDynamics has developed and tested prototypes with 4.2-ft, 6.6-ft and 12.3-ft wingspans. The future plan is to offer licenses for its patented technology as well as manufacturing and flight services, where the Transwing could be used for small-scale cargo transportation, military applications, as well as passenger transportation.
PteroDynamics also aims to establish a 9,200 sq. ft. engineering facility in Colorado, U.S. to further R&D operations, and may soon sign a deal for an experimental license within 12 months.
Visual presentation
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=9&v=3uNboCgDOKQ&feature=emb_logo
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(News Source: https://transportup.com)
