Flying Car News: Anatomy of an eVTOL modular Flying Car

Saturday, September 9, 2017

Anatomy of an eVTOL modular Flying Car

SE Vehicles

Sep 09, 2017

Lots of text in my previous two blogs to assess the prospect of a flying car that can takeoff and land vertically, with the use of battery power. Time to recap what's essential. 'New iSetta' offers pictural suggestions how an eVTOL modular Flying Car concept might work by taking 'elements' separately, instead of rightaway presenting an integrated aircraft design.

'New iSetta' does not make claims or sidestep things, like some eVTOL developers seem to be doing to convince investors. Here is an overview of the eVTOL concepts that have been covered in the media - click. My suggestions are threefold.

1. To begin with, the suggestion is to use an airfoil, so no energy is wasted on keeping the craft up in the air, during which only the rear rotor will be used in a push-capacity. This in itself will be beneficial to range.2. The three rotors that you see on the picture are primarily used to VTOL the craft. But they also replace an airplane's traditional control surfaces; roll and pitch can either be kept in check or actively induced.3. Why not put the traditional fuselage to good use by turning it into a streamlined, lightweight road vehicle, in which you can straightaway drive off upon landing? What the benefits are, have been described in my previous two blogs: cut costs, eliminate pre- and post-flight. Click here for a quick overview. There is just no way of ignoring the two complicating factors that make or break an eVTOL design: batteries (energy density and weight) and the sheer power that is required to VTOL. To start with the airfoil, what should it be shaped like to maximiz e lift, to minimize drag and to be able to function as a container for the batteries? Secondly come the rotors. What diameter should they have in order to be able to airlift the whole craft? How should they be integrated into the airfoil? The fuselage that constitutes a road vehicle will obviously need tinkering to make it as slippery as possible. Serious attention must be given to the connecting & disconnecting mechanism with which the road vehicle is attached to the airfoil, if only for the passengers' ease of mind. A single pylon may not suffice. Last but certainly not least, what is the maximum takeoff weight? What range will be possible at what (economic) cruising speed?