orion
R.I.P.
Ah, the curse of engineers - always doing something other than what one should be doing. Recently I had a discussion with a couple of folks regarding the work done by several teams for the PAV concept (Personal Air Vehicle). At first this seems sort of a silly title since most airplanes are already personal vehicles but what came out of our conversation (which was a bit different than what NASA is working toward) was an idea that has never really gelled in our industry. Basically, what this refers to is sort of the airplane equivalent of a typical motorcycle. By that term, what we wanted to define is a "small" airplane (not a flying motorcycle) with reasonable speed and range, but one that didn't have the storage requirements of a typical 30'+ winged airframe. It has to be small, simple, easy to fly, but yet still have the necessary volume and performance for some actual and practical use.
In order to be useful, it had to have dramatically more range and utility than the typical BD5 (after all, I have to be able to fit in) but the idea of that size class and that performance potential is the right direction. Some time back I started laying out a concept airplane called the "Raspberry", which did address a number of the issues but due to the configuration, did produce a few unknowns that still need more advanced analysis than I was willing to invest into it at this time.
The current PAV concept I think is a bit more realistic as some of the features are based on a previously built and tested wing design. The baseline idea was that as envisioned by Walt Mooney and produced by the Rohr corp. in the mid seventies, as a new form of flight training platform. their product never went into production but sufficient flight test time showed the idea had merit and resulted in a very benign but well performing airframe.
At this point I'm looking only at a single place. The idea still needs more work, especially in the optimization of the wing since the current area results in a plan-form load of about 6.7 psf. But given the requirements here, and the need to operate off of relatively small fields (under 2,000 feet), it's probably not too far off. At this point it's about 21 feet long with a 19' span, powered by an IO-320 turning about 3,400 rpm. Top speed is anticipated to be in the region of 200 mph, with a range of 700 to 900 miles (with reserves) - the gross weight I'm shooting for is about 1,000 pounds. It will most likely be all graphite construction, but the details thereof have not been really defined. It is possible that glass could also be used, especially given the somewhat generous weight allowance.
Thoughts?
In order to be useful, it had to have dramatically more range and utility than the typical BD5 (after all, I have to be able to fit in) but the idea of that size class and that performance potential is the right direction. Some time back I started laying out a concept airplane called the "Raspberry", which did address a number of the issues but due to the configuration, did produce a few unknowns that still need more advanced analysis than I was willing to invest into it at this time.
The current PAV concept I think is a bit more realistic as some of the features are based on a previously built and tested wing design. The baseline idea was that as envisioned by Walt Mooney and produced by the Rohr corp. in the mid seventies, as a new form of flight training platform. their product never went into production but sufficient flight test time showed the idea had merit and resulted in a very benign but well performing airframe.
At this point I'm looking only at a single place. The idea still needs more work, especially in the optimization of the wing since the current area results in a plan-form load of about 6.7 psf. But given the requirements here, and the need to operate off of relatively small fields (under 2,000 feet), it's probably not too far off. At this point it's about 21 feet long with a 19' span, powered by an IO-320 turning about 3,400 rpm. Top speed is anticipated to be in the region of 200 mph, with a range of 700 to 900 miles (with reserves) - the gross weight I'm shooting for is about 1,000 pounds. It will most likely be all graphite construction, but the details thereof have not been really defined. It is possible that glass could also be used, especially given the somewhat generous weight allowance.
Thoughts?
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