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US 11,548,631 B2Granted
Multi mode safety system for VTOL aircraft
AssigneeVerdeGo Aero, Inc.
InventorsRichard Pat Anderson, Eric Richard Bartsch
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An aircraft safety system includes impact energy reduction systems including: an aircraft parachute, at least one rotor configured for autorotation, and an energy absorbing system. An automatic control system uses data from speed and altitude sensors to selectively and sequentially deploy the impact energy reduction systems depending on the portion of the aircraft speed and altitude flight envelope in which the aircraft is operating when an emergency is detected.
Claims20
An aircraft having a safety system, the aircraft comprising:
- a fuselage;
- a passenger seating position within the fuselage;
- a rotor configured for autorotation;
- a parachute attached to the aircraft;
- an energy absorbing system configured to reduce an impact acceleration exerted on the passenger seating position when the fuselage impacts the ground in a substantially horizontal attitude;
- and
- an automatic emergency control system configured to:
- determine an altitude of the aircraft and an airspeed of the aircraft;
- detect an emergency condition;
- and
- in response to the detection of the emergency condition:
- when the aircraft is above a threshold altitude upon the detection of the emergency condition, deploy the parachute and rotor autorotation to control a velocity of the fuselage at or below a threshold velocity, wherein the threshold altitude is dependent on the airspeed of the aircraft;
- when the aircraft is at or below the threshold altitude upon the detection of the emergency condition, deploy the rotor autorotation without parachute deployment to control the velocity of the fuselage at or below the threshold velocity, and
- wherein the threshold velocity is determined such that the deployment of the rotor autorotation alone or the deployment of both the rotor autorotation and the parachute, combined with deployment of the energy absorbing system, maintains the impact acceleration exerted on the passenger seating position during an impact below a threshold acceleration.
11 more elements
A method comprising
- determining, by a processor, an altitude of an aircraft and an airspeed of the aircraft;
- detecting, by the processor, an emergency condition of the aircraft, wherein the aircraft comprises:
- a fuselage,
- a passenger seating position within the fuselage,
- a rotor configured for autorotation,
- a parachute attached to the aircraft, and
- an energy absorbing system configured to reduce an impact acceleration exerted on the passenger seating position when the fuselage impacts the ground in a substantially horizontal attitude;
- and
- in response to the detecting of the emergency condition:
- when the aircraft is above a threshold altitude upon the detecting of the emergency condition, deploying the parachute and rotor autorotation to control a velocity of the fuselage at or below a threshold velocity, wherein the threshold altitude is dependent on the airspeed of the aircraft;
- and
- when the aircraft is at or below the threshold altitude upon the detecting of the emergency condition, deploying the rotor autorotation without parachute deployment to control the velocity of the fuselage at or below the threshold velocity,
- wherein the threshold velocity is determined such that the deployment of the rotor autorotation alone or the deployment of both the rotor autorotation and the parachute, combined with deployment of the energy absorbing system, maintains the impact acceleration exerted on the passenger seating position during an impact below a threshold acceleration.
10 more elements
A non-transitory computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations, wherein the instructions comprise:
- instructions to determine, by a processor, an altitude of an aircraft and an airspeed of the aircraft;
- instructions to detect, by the processor, an emergency condition of the aircraft, wherein the aircraft comprises:
- a fuselage,
- a passenger seating position within the fuselage,
- a rotor configured for autorotation,
- a parachute attached to the aircraft, and
- an energy absorbing system configured to reduce an impact acceleration exerted on the passenger seating position when the fuselage impacts the ground in a substantially horizontal attitude;
- and
- instructions to, in response to the detection of the emergency condition:
- when the aircraft is above a threshold altitude upon the detection of the emergency condition, deploy the parachute and rotor autorotation to control a velocity of the fuselage at or below a threshold velocity, wherein the threshold altitude is dependent on the airspeed of the aircraft;
- and
- when the aircraft is at or below the threshold altitude upon the detection of the emergency condition, deploy the rotor autorotation without parachute deployment to control the velocity of the fuselage at or below the threshold velocity,
- wherein the threshold velocity is determined such that the deployment of the rotor autorotation alone or the deployment of both the rotor autorotation and the parachute, combined with deployment of the energy absorbing system maintains the impact acceleration exerted on the passenger seating position during an impact below a threshold acceleration.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.