Concept vehicles are presented for air taxi operations, also known as urban air mobility or on-demand mobility applications. Considering the design-space dimensions of payload (passengers and pilot), range, aircraft type, and propulsion system, three aircraft are designed: a single passenger (250-lb payload), 50-nm range quadrotor with electric propulsion; a six-passenger (1200-lb payload), 4x50 = 200-nm range side-by-side helicopter with hybrid propulsion; and a fifteen-passenger (3000-lb payload), 8x50 = 400-nm range tiltwing with turbo-electric propulsion. These concept vehicles are intended to focus and guide NASA research activities in support of aircraft development for emerging aviation markets, in particular VTOL air taxi operations. Research areas are discussed, illustrated by results from the design of the concept vehicles.
Concept Vehicles for VTOL Air Taxi Operations
AHS Specialists'' Conference on Aeromechanics Design for Transformative Vertical Flight ; 2018 ; San Francisco, CA, United States
2018-01-16
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Keine Angabe
Englisch
VTOL , Aeronautics (General) , Air Taxi , Operations , Vehicles , Concept