Textron eAviation Inc Nexus eVTOL

[joshjosh]

Mystery Tiltrotor Aircraft Emerges

The market for hybrid and fully electric vertical takeoff and landing capable aircraft, including military use, has exploded in recent years.

www.twz.com

 

[yasotay]

I am going to make a wild prognostication here.
The Mojave Mystery VTOL is a hybrid electric/turbine demonstrator light cargo aircraft being developed at AFWERX behest to investigate VTOL platforms for its expeditionary fighting concepts. A follow on from their investigations with the EVTOL the last couple of years. The tail assembly speaks to a rear ramp that will allow small(er) forklifts to on and offload pallets. Since it is a demonstrator, the fuselage does not have to actually fit pallets, especially since it is likely full of test instrumentation. The four electric driven rotors for VTOL takeoff and landing are comparatively light weight and like Beta's Alia, able to be stowed with aerodynamic efficiency, although the picture makes the rotors look less drag efficient. They should also add to efficient STOL take off, when possible, to reduce fuel burn on takeoff. Given the full-length flaps seen in the pictures the aircraft should be able to do very short landings too, if carrying larger loads. The relatively simple tricycle landing gear are sufficient for demonstration to keep cost down. It is not too hard to see sponsons with fuel or other additional space for retractable gear if the program continues.
Now for the real wild part. Tilt rotor is not a simple engineering effort. An electric tilt rotor is even more specialized. There is, to my knowledge only one aircraft engineering company who has done an all-electric (other than the turbine propulsion itself) VTOL cargo aircraft in the past. Karem Aerospace. So, I think they might be involved. I might also throw BETA Technologies into the mix as they have experience with transition from VTOL propulsion to powered. BETA has mentioned working on hybrid as well.

Hope this experiment works. Love the idea.

 

[TomS]

I am going to make a wild prognostication here.
The Mojave Mystery VTOL is a hybrid electric/turbine demonstrator light cargo aircraft being developed at AFWERX behest to investigate VTOL platforms for its expeditionary fighting concepts. A follow on from their investigations with the EVTOL the last couple of years. The tail assembly speaks to a rear ramp that will allow small(er) forklifts to on and offload pallets. Since it is a demonstrator, the fuselage does not have to actually fit pallets, especially since it is likely full of test instrumentation. The four electric driven rotors for VTOL takeoff and landing are comparatively light weight and like Beta's Alia, able to be stowed with aerodynamic efficiency, although the picture makes the rotors look less drag efficient. They should also add to efficient STOL take off, when possible, to reduce fuel burn on takeoff. Given the full-length flaps seen in the pictures the aircraft should be able to do very short landings too, if carrying larger loads. The relatively simple tricycle landing gear are sufficient for demonstration to keep cost down. It is not too hard to see sponsons with fuel or other additional space for retractable gear if the program continues.
Now for the real wild part. Tilt rotor is not a simple engineering effort. An electric tilt rotor is even more specialized. There is, to my knowledge only one aircraft engineering company who has done an all-electric (other than the turbine propulsion itself) VTOL cargo aircraft in the past. Karem Aerospace. So, I think they might be involved. I might also throw BETA Technologies into the mix as they have experience with transition from VTOL propulsion to powered. BETA has mentioned working on hybrid as well.

Hope this experiment works. Love the idea.

One of the comments mentions the Textron e-Aviation Nexus project with a similar config. Not an exact match, though, since Nexus as shown tilts the inboard prop-rotors forward. Also, they did announce that they would be flight testing at Salina Regional Airport in Kansas, which makes Mojave unlikely.

Textron eAviation Inc. Announces Nexus eVTOL Flight Testing at Salina Regional Airport | Textron eAviation

Textron eAviation Inc., a Textron Inc. (NYSE: TXT) business segment, today announced it will conduct flight testing for its Nexus eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing) full-scale technology demonstrator aircraft at Salina Regional Airport (SLN) in collaboration with the Salina Airport...

www.e-aviation.com

 

[bob225]

Isn't Mojave home to Scaled Composites?

Reminds me a little of this https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/th...ransport-aircraft-proposals.20555/post-201766

@Stargazer might be something for you??

 

[Stargazer]

@Stargazer might be something for you??

Thanks for thinking of me! Yes, Mojave is definitely Rutan territory, no doubt. However, although most aircraft being developed there owe something to Burt Rutan or to Scaled Composites, there have been a handful of exceptions, so who knows?

 

[yasotay]

Request Moderator move from #2787 to #2791 to the New VTOL aircraft thread.