Fabrication of Low Cost NASA Personal Air Vehicle Concept

A NASA advanced concept for a highly affordable personal aircraft, capable of utilizing an automotive engine, and achieving significantly lower community noise.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• PAV
• Personal
• Air
• Vehicle
• NASA
• Low
• Cost
• Aviation
• Light
• Sport
• Aircraft
• Future
• Automotive
• Engine

[saildapper2001]

As a private pilot, I've often thought I have a lot of manual 'options' (carb heat, magnetos, etc.) that made sense a long time ago, but even when future hardware is perfected and simplified with computer assistance, the training aspects of flying will continue to be a hurdle to mass popularization.

[NASAPAV]

There is really no reason for this. Read a few of our research papers on the Haptic Control System - which is a complementation system that takes advantage of humans for what they do (perception of objects, strategy and intent) and human automation (actually controlling vehicle). The analogy is developing a horse and rider experience - do you really want to have to tell the horse every single place and time to place a hoof, or you just want to nudge him which way to go...

[dunners2004]

The biggest design problem for personal air vehicles is producing high lift at low speeds so that a short takeoff and landing run can be acheived. Rotary aircraft are very good at VTOL but their complxity let them down for the general user and their straight line performance is generally poor. In order to acheive this high lift at low speeds either tilt fans are needed to vector thrust downwards, or an adaption of the Custer channels (Or spiral ducts) could be used. Nice animation though!

[NASAPAV]

Yes, a small turbine will turn at 50K rpm - but this is not a small turbine, this is a 3.5 ft diameter ducted propeller which was designed to operate at ~600 ft/sec tip speeds with a direct drive from a derated LS-1 engine that can put out 300 hp. It is perfectly sized, in fact we built it and tested it with an LS-1 engine - worked perfectly, and very quiet.

[boomtao]

It's an Aptera with wings!

[NASAPAV]

Great bet - you're on! But we not pursuing this specific concept any longer. Take look at the Hyper Efficiency Concept that I also have posted. Would you make the same bet that we can't use a aluminum 4 cylinder straight from an auto production line? But to be fair you should understand that our strategy with that vehicle has matured - that is a redundant hybrid-electric powertrain, so the auto engine is just the cruise engine, and the electric portion permits redundancy

[TedRobotBuilder]

@NASAPAV, it would be nice if the FAA started thinking forward like that but they don't. Their heads are in the stone-age. I will eat a bag of dirt with a spoon if they let you use an unmodified LS1 in a airplane.

[NASAPAV]

BTW, if you are interested in reading more about this, here is a website that discusses the LS-1 ignition system (just search Megasquirt LS-1 ignition system)

[NASAPAV]

Correct, but the LS-1 spark system is even better than want it is certified on aircraft today. This is what we were pushing - safety intent with adv techs, vs compliance that results in lower safety. The LS-1 uses an 8 coil system, with each coil a redundant, self contained ignition system, so there is redundancy. Sure you could lose 1 plug or 1 coil, but the engine is still going to put out plenty of power. Surely you can see the potential improvement...

[TedRobotBuilder]

@NASAPAV, the LS1 in your video doesn't have duel plugs.

[NASAPAV]

Yes, it is possible, many engines have redundant igniters and spark plugs per cylinder these days. Toyota fully certified the FV4000 Lexus engine for aircraft use - but they did alter the engine significantly because they were hooking it up to a propeller (which I think is crazy). An auto engine needs/wants to be a direct drive solution to a ducted propeller to work well for many reasons.

[TedRobotBuilder]

Would the FAA really let you use a car engine? Everything I have heard says no. The motor has to redundant spark system that few car engines have.