Avcen Jetpod VQSTOL

[Triton]

The Avcen Jetpod was a design proposal for a very quiet aircraft that can take off and land in short distances (STOL), developed by Avcen Limited, a company formed in 1998 to promote development of the Jetpod. Avcen described its aircraft as a Very Quiet Short Take-Off and Landing (VQSTOL) aircraft.

Advantages of the Avcen Limited Jetpod:

• 50% less jet noise

• The VQSTOL Jetpod offers much more than Extreme STOL (ESTOL) by virtue of its low noise;
• 125 metres (410 feet) take-off and landing distance, assisted by a unique through-wing thrust component;
• 300 kts (350 mph – 550 kmph) low-level cruising speed;
• Less exhaust gas emission per seat mile compared to car transportation
• 20% less pollution based on two cars over the same distance with 7 passengers or,
• 75% less pollution based on 7 less sole-occupancy cars over the same distance or,
• 35% less overall pollution averaged across a localized civil fleet of T-100s and P-200s;
• The Jetpod has been designed to carry out multiple daily flight sectors (50 plus) using a very rugged tricycle dual-tyre undercarriage. The Jetpod can land on grass, dirt or stone-strewn landing areas.
• 75 Jetpods would service a city the size of London this is equivalent to 37,000 less return car journeys every day, or 7.5m people moved annually, the same as moving the entire population of Greater London once a year.
• Typical flight sectors will take 4-6 minutes from an outer-ring of countryside park-and-fly sites direct to inner-city destinations alongside the River Thames for example.
• Fare prices will be in the region of only £100 to hire the whole aircraft on each flight sector, or approximately £15 (24 Euros – 27 US Dollars) one-way for each passenger.

Roles:

• Air Taxi - low-cost, free-roaming, multi-sector, low-level, very quiet, city centre air-taxis
• Personal Jet - low-noise, countryside transpeeder, on grass or roughly prepared dirt strips
• Fast mover of Corporation staff to multiple localised destinations
• Military forward-area command-and-control battlefield airtaxi
• Military utility, 300 knots high-speed cruise from battlefield to rear echelons
• Military or civil surgical air-ambulance (run-straight-in stretcher)
• Military 4-man special forces and special reconnaissance team expediter - rapid ingress/egress
• Onboard Aircraft Carrier operations without the need for catapult or arrester-gear
• Day, plus very late/early hours, high-value, city courier-bullion
• Quiet night surveillance operations, Customs and Coast Guard
• Free-roaming homeland security over major cities at 45 kts loiter, 340 kts chase
• Police operations
• Tourism airtaxi, especially high density and cross-water small island destinations, viewing platform

Artist's impression of Avcen Jetpod T100 Aircab.


Source:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/04/prweb233558.htm
http://www2g.biglobe.ne.jp/aviation/avcen.html
http://dylanz.net/wp/2009/08/flying-cars/
http://web.archive.org/web/20060422105436/www.avcen.com/jetpod.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avcen

 

[Triton]

Specifications

Cabin means the full-length pod section from the rear of the pilot's seat station to the rear door frame and does not include the pilot and front seat passengers' area or the aircraft's' own storage area within the bulbous rear doors.

• Cabin internal width at seat-level 1.55m (5.08 ft).
• Cabin internal width at head-height when standing 1.12m (3.66 ft).
• Cabin internal length along recessed floor-well 4.0m (13.12 ft).
• Cabin volume 85.4 cu.m (285 cu.ft).
• Aircraft length nose to rear clamshells 6.93m (22.74 ft).
• Wingspan 36.85 feet.
• Wing Area 265 sq.ft
• Height to top of tail fin at MTOW 4.49m (14.72 ft)
• Fuel burn (operational) both engines 65 Gallons or 435 lbs/hr.
• Range VFR 800 nautical miles.
• MTOW-MLW 6500/6750 lbs depending on type.
• Jetpod over short sectors is not meant to tanker fuel and uses the wing tanks only. An outer port-side underwing pressure refuelling point can be used with engines running but without passengers.

Artist's impression of Avcen Jetpod P-200 personal jet.


Source:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/04/prweb233558.htm
http://web.archive.org/web/20060409100657/www.avcen.com/p200-ext.php
http://web.archive.org/web/20060422110604/www.avcen.com/specifications.php

 

[Triton]

Peformance

• Operational cruise speed 300 kts IAS
• Vmo 340 kts
• Vne 375 kts
• Vs 38 kts (+/- 5% MTOW, gear down - full flap) 10% V-comp.
• Take-off run at 125 metres (410 feet) with vertical thrust component
• Landing run less than 125 metres
• Single engine climb rate 1200 fpm
• Operating payload 700 kg (not including pilot).
• Hourly operating costs all inclusive, including fuel, pilot, MRO, insurance, finance, engine reserves - Euros 520/hr.

Artist's impression of Avcen Jetpod M-300 military transport.


Source:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/04/prweb233558.htm
http://www2g.biglobe.ne.jp/aviation/avcen.html
http://web.archive.org/web/20060422110352/www.avcen.com/performance.php

 

[Triton]

• Additional features
  
  • Carbon, aluminium
  • Twin turbofan thrust range 4800-5600 lbs (total)
  • Overwing-side and underwing engine check-A access
  • Vertical under-wing thrust nozzles
  • Armoured centre-spline and natural anhedral blade egress protection
  • Impact and fire-resistant engine liners
  • Hot leading-edge plus warm upper surfaces anti-ice – hot screen
  • Single pilot Instrument (IFR) capable but designed primarily with Visual (VFR) in mind
  • Secondary Synthetic Terrain Mapping, Enhanced Visual System equipped – weather radar
  • All EFIS lightweight post-and-stalked engine and PFD instruments in movable clusters, HUD
  • Horizontal tray-mounted thrust levers as part of an ergonomic push-to-clear flight systems display
  • Removable side-stick flight controls – single pilot can decide which seat to fly from
  • One wheel from each gear train is easily removeable on-site – single tyre-burst redundancy
  • Two mid-section fuel tanks plus one standard centre range-tank – auto crossfeed
  • Slatted mid-wing, twin-railed fowler flaps
  • Cabin DVD drop-screen for automated passenger briefing
  • Ultralight split-and-fold seating with headrests and moulded lumbar support – cross-chest and lap straps
  • Lift and roll spoilers – substantial low-speed aileron and rudder control
  • Automated rear clamshell doors with walk/run-in foot-ramp
  • Excellent front, overhead and through-floor viewing for the pilot(s), plus optional external cameras
  • Extra-large panorama cabin windows for increased viewing and ambient light
  • Titanium bird-impact and engine debris protectors
  • Very high and wide, standup full-length cabin with recessed foot-well
  
  Artist's impression of Avcen Jetpod E-400 Air Ambulance.
  
  Source:
  http://web.archive.org/web/20060409100532/http://www.avcen.com/e400-int.php
  http://web.archive.org/web/20060422110604/www.avcen.com/specifications.php
  http://web.archive.org/web/20060422105654/www.avcen.com/outline.php

 

[Abraham Gubler]

I think you need to add this very important fact:

"British aviation pioneer dies after prototype crashes in Malaysia"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6798198.ece

 

[Triton]

I think you need to add this very important fact:

"British aviation pioneer dies after prototype crashes in Malaysia"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6798198.ece

On August 16, 2009, the founder of Avcen, Michael Robert Dacre, was killed when the Jetpod prototype crashed in Malayasia during flight testing. Dacre was at the controls. According to Taiping deputy police chief Supt Syed A. Wahab Syed A. Majid, the company had not obtained permission from the Royal Malaysian Air Force to conduct these flight tests.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avcen

 

[Abraham Gubler]

It’s an interesting concept the Jetpod. Rather than try and develop a VTOL aircraft it focuses on a STOL aircraft (<125m landing field) with very low noise. Having had my downtown breakfast one morning severely intruded upon by a helo landing on a nearby barge I can attest that noise would be a very significant limitation to extensive use of aircraft in city environments. But even 125m strips – the size of a football field – are of a premium inside a city. There would need to be some airport infrastructure built, albeit much smaller than conventional aircraft, to support Jetpod operations.

 

[Triton]

It’s an interesting concept the Jetpod. Rather than try and develop a VTOL aircraft it focuses on a STOL aircraft (<125m landing field) with very low noise. Having had my downtown breakfast one morning severely intruded upon by a helo landing on a nearby barge I can attest that noise would be a very significant limitation to extensive use of aircraft in city environments. But even 125m strips – the size of a football field – are of a premium inside a city. There would need to be some airport infrastructure built, albeit much smaller than conventional aircraft, to support Jetpod operations.

From the late Avcen website Via Internet Archive:

One way of offsetting road and rail congestion is to provide air taxis that are very quiet, free roaming and pay-on-demand. The concept of implementing large centralised city STOL ports is in our opinion the wrong approach. Instead, we believe air taxis should shuttle between an outer ring of park-and-fly sites and several city centre STOL strips or between countryside and suburban sites that do not require long runways. City centre STOL strips need be no longer than 300 metres (including stopping distance) and could be built as elevated sections on top of or alongside harbours, rivers, reservoirs, roads, and track approaches to railway stations. When it comes to using existing jet, turbo-propeller or piston-engine powered aircraft at would-be STOL strips, we have identified no aircraft that are capable of taking-off and landing within our target take-off run of 125 metres (410 ft). Even if such aircraft were capable of managing such short distances, they are simply too loud. In the case of the helicopter, loud rotor noise and low speed are design constraints. There are some innovations in aircraft propulsion that are either under going construction or still on the drawing board, such as tilt-rotors and electric ducted-fans. In the case of the former, these ideally vertical-lift craft could reach speeds of 250 kts but their noise and very expensive production costs will prevent them from being accepted commercially or militarily. As for electric ducted fans, unless there is a break-through in the technology necessary to increase thrust-to-weight-ratio in this type of power unit, then future development will almost certainly be stunted. It is only in recent years that we have witnessed considerable technological advancements in engine design, fuel efficiency and advanced materials technologies, such that new jet engines are now very fuel-efficient. Therefore, operating jet-engined aircraft on very fast, low-level, point-to-point short-sectors makes more commercial sense today than before.

The answer to Very Quiet Short Take-Off and Landing, or (VQSTOL) as Avcen has named it, comes in the form of the Avcen Jetpod series of aircraft. For example, we envisage that there will be a strong demand from aircraft operators around the world who will use our T-100 aircraft as free-roaming air taxis, much as we use road taxis today. From private individuals to military Special Forces teams all requiring VQSTOL, Avcen will provide them with the winning combination of the totally unique Jetpod and quality production.

Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20060422105550/www.avcen.com/about.php

 

[ozzie]

Does anyone know if the project is still in operation, as there have not been any updates since the death of Mike Dacre.