TY - JOUR
T1 - Configuration study of electric helicopters for urban air mobility
AU - Cole, Julia A.
AU - Rajauski, Lauren
AU - Loughran, Andrew
AU - Karpowicz, Alexander
AU - Salinger, Stefanie
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support for this research from the Henry Luce Foundation and the Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium. Additional support for this research was provided by undergraduate research assistants Michael Scagluso and Khanh Pham. The authors would also like to acknowledge Judah Milgram, Alejandra Uranga, and the reviewers of the paper for their valuable suggestions regarding the work.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - There is currently interest in the design of small electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft to alleviate ground traffic and congestion in major urban areas. To support progress in this area, a conceptual design method for single-main-rotor and lift-augmented compound electric helicopters has been developed. The design method was used to investigate the feasible design space for electric helicopters based on varying mission profiles and technology assumptions. Within the feasible design space, it was found that a crossover boundary exists as a function of cruise distance and hover time where the most efficient configuration changes from a single-main-rotor helicopter to a lift-augmented compound helicopter. In general, for longer cruise distances and shorter hover times, the lift-augmented compound helicopter is the more efficient configuration. An additional study was conducted to investigate the potential benefits of decoupling the main rotor from the tail rotor. This study showed that decoupling the main rotor and tail rotor has the potential to reduce the total mission energy required in all cases, allowing for increases in mission distances and hover times on the order of 5% for a given battery size.
AB - There is currently interest in the design of small electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft to alleviate ground traffic and congestion in major urban areas. To support progress in this area, a conceptual design method for single-main-rotor and lift-augmented compound electric helicopters has been developed. The design method was used to investigate the feasible design space for electric helicopters based on varying mission profiles and technology assumptions. Within the feasible design space, it was found that a crossover boundary exists as a function of cruise distance and hover time where the most efficient configuration changes from a single-main-rotor helicopter to a lift-augmented compound helicopter. In general, for longer cruise distances and shorter hover times, the lift-augmented compound helicopter is the more efficient configuration. An additional study was conducted to investigate the potential benefits of decoupling the main rotor from the tail rotor. This study showed that decoupling the main rotor and tail rotor has the potential to reduce the total mission energy required in all cases, allowing for increases in mission distances and hover times on the order of 5% for a given battery size.
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U2 - 10.3390/aerospace8020054
DO - 10.3390/aerospace8020054
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85102183089
SN - 2226-4310
VL - 8
SP - 1
EP - 19
JO - Aerospace
JF - Aerospace
IS - 2
M1 - 54
ER -