Personal aircraft

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9845150-B2
Application number	US-201313764697-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2013
Priority date	Jul 19, 2010
Publication date	Dec 19, 2017
Grant date	Dec 19, 2017

Abstract

A safe, quiet, easy to control, efficient, and compact aircraft configuration is enabled through the combination of multiple vertical lift rotors, tandem wings, and forward thrust propellers. The vertical lift rotors, in combination with a front and rear wing, permits a balancing of the center of lift with the center of gravity for both vertical and horizontal flight. This wing and multiple rotor system has the ability to tolerate a relatively large variation of the payload weight for hover, transition, or cruise flight while also providing vertical thrust redundancy. The propulsion system uses multiple lift rotors and forward thrust propellers of a small enough size to be shielded from potential blade strike and provide increased perceived and real safety to the passengers. Using multiple independent rotors provides redundancy and the elimination of single point failure modes that can make the vehicle non-operable in flight.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An aircraft comprising:
a fuselage;
a forward wing coupled to the fuselage and located forward of a center of gravity;
an aft wing coupled to the fuselage and located aft of the center of gravity;
a first mounting boom extending from a port side of the fuselage via a first plurality of struts;
a second mounting boom extending from a starboard side of the fuselage via a second plurality of struts;
a first plurality of lift rotors, each rotor mounted on the first mounting boom between the forward wing and the aft wing on the port side of the fuselage and configured to produce an amount of vertical thrust independent of levels of vertical thrust produced by the other rotors;
a second plurality of lift rotors, each rotor mounted on the second mounting boom between the forward wing and the aft wing on the starboard side of the fuselage and configured to produce an amount of vertical thrust independent of levels of vertical thrust produced by the other rotors; and
a first propeller coupled to a port side of the aft wing and a second propeller coupled to a starboard side of the aft wing.

2. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the forward wing includes a plurality of joints configured to allow portions of the forward wing outboard of each joint to fold.

3. The aircraft of claim 2 wherein the aft wing includes a plurality of joints configured to allow portions of the aft wing outboard of each joint to fold.

4. The aircraft of claim 1 further comprising:
a first shroud coupled to the fuselage and coplanar to the first plurality of rotors, and extending substantially around an outboard portion of the first plurality of rotors; and
a second shroud coupled to the fuselage and coplanar to the second plurality of rotors, and extending substantially around an outboard portion of the second plurality of rotors.

5. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the aft wing further comprises a first winglet coupled to an outboard port edge of the aft wing and a second winglet coupled to an outboard starboard edge of the aft wing.

6. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the first plurality of lift rotors is 4 and the second plurality of lift rotors is 4.

7. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the lift rotors in the first and second plurality of lift rotors are driven by electric motors.

8. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the forward wing and the aft wing are not in the same horizontal plane.

9. The aircraft of claim 1 further comprising:
a forward landing gear coupled to the fuselage;
a port main landing gear coupled to the fuselage; and
a starboard main landing gear coupled to the fuselage.

10. The aircraft of claim 1 further comprising a skid landing gear coupled to the fuselage.

11. A method for flying a VTOL aircraft, the method comprising:
providing the aircraft of claim 1 ;
producing using the first and second plurality of rotors a vertical thrust to cause the aircraft to ascend;
producing forward thrust to the aircraft using the propeller.

12. The method of claim 11 further comprising:
transitioning the aircraft from vertical to forward flight by reducing the vertical thrust produced by the rotors while increasing the forward thrust produced by the propeller.

13. The aircraft of claim 4 wherein the fuselage and wings are made from carbon fiber composite material.

14. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the at least one of the forward wing and the aft wing includes a composite wing skin having an inner portion and an outer portion, metal fittings, and ribs, wherein the metal fittings and ribs are attached to the inner portion of the composite wing skin.

15. The aircraft of claim 14 wherein the wing skin is made of carbon fiber combined with an impact resistant material.

16. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the fuselage includes a truss and a composite skin covering the truss.

17. The aircraft of claim 4 wherein at least one of the first shroud and the second shroud is made from materials comprising at least one of an impact resistant material and carbon fiber composite.

18. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first plurality of lift rotors and the second plurality of lift rotors is made from a carbon fiber composite material.

19. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein at least one of the first plurality of lift rotors and the second plurality of lift rotors include rotors comprising an aluminum hub and carbon fiber blades attached to the aluminum hub.

20. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein the aft wing is swept back.

21. The aircraft of claim 5 wherein the first winglet extends upward from the outboard port edge of the aft wing and the second winglet extends upward from the outboard starboard edge of the aft wing.

22. The aircraft of claim 21 wherein the first winglet includes a first joint about which the first winglet rotates and the second winglet includes a second joint about which the second winglet rotates.

23. The aircraft of claim 5 wherein the first winglet extends downward from the outboard port edge of the aft wing and the second winglet extends downward from the outboard starboard edge of the aft wing.

24. The aircraft of claim 23 wherein the first winglet includes a first joint about which the first winglet rotates and the second winglet includes a second joint about which the second winglet rotates.

25. The aircraft of claim 20 wherein the aft wing includes a dihedral angle between −10 degrees and 10 degrees.

26. The aircraft of claim 1 wherein a first set of lift rotors from the first plurality of lift rotors rotate in a first direction and a second set of lift rotors from the first plurality of lift rotors rotate in a second direction opposite the first direction.

27. The aircraft of claim 26 wherein a first set of lift rotors from the first plurality of lift rotors is located on one side of the center of gravity of the aircraft and a second set of lift rotors from the first plurality of lift rotors is located on another side of the center of gravity.

28. The aircraft of claim 26 wherein the aircraft further comprises a plurality of motors, each motor attached to one of the first plurality of lift rotors or one of the second plurality of lift rotors and is powered by a battery coupled to a motor controller for the motor.

29. The aircraft of claim 26 wherein the aircraft further comprises a hybrid-electric power system that powers the first plurality of lift rotors and the second plurality of lift rotors.

30. The aircraft of claim 26 further comprising:
a plurality of lift ducts;
wherein each of the first plurality of lift rotors is mounted within one of the plurality of lift ducts.

31. The aircraft of claim 30 , further comprising:
a plurality of duct covers, each duct cover coupled to one of the first plurality of lift rotors and configured to seal the lift rotor coupled to the duct cover during cruise flight to reduce drag.

32. The aircraft of claim 9 wherein the forward landing gear, the port main landing gear, and the starboard main landing gear are skids having no wheels.

33. The aircraft of claim 9 further comprising:
a plurality of electric motors, each electric motor coupled to a wheel of one of the forward landing gear, the port main landing gear, and the starboard main landing gear and conf

Assignees

• Kitty Hawk Corp

Inventors

• Kroo Ilan

Classifications

• Y02T50/145

  Cross-Sectional Technologies · mapped topic

• B64C3/56 Primary

  Folding or collapsing to reduce overall dimensions of aircraft · CPC title

• B64C29/00 Primary

  Aircraft capable of landing or taking-off vertically, e.g. vertical take-off and landing [VTOL] aircraft (rotorcraft B64C27/00) · CPC title

• B64C27/22 Primary

  Compound rotorcraft, i.e. aircraft using in flight the features of both aeroplane and rotorcraft · CPC title

• B64C29/0025

  the propellers being fixed relative to the fuselage · CPC title