Bladeless eVTOL passenger aircraft with fixed-wing forward flight travel, and method and power plant therefor
OwnerDaniel Keith Schlakinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An eVTOL aerial passenger drone, hereafter referred to as an aircraft, is provided. The aircraft may have an electrically powered fan system, which transposes longitudinally- or radially-captured ambient ingress air into at least one tangentially spinning thrust air stream traveling at extremely high outlet/thrust tangential velocities. This tangentially spinning thrust air stream is corralled from the fan system by at least one volute or entrainment device to a splitter mechanism in order that the thrust air stream can be ejected selectively downwardly, rearwardly, and at an angle between downwardly and rearwardly, for lift and forward propulsion of the aircraft.
Claims22
An aircraft comprising an electrically powered fan module,
- said aircraft further comprising a longitudinal forward flight direction and a longitudinal rearward direction parallel to said longitudinal forward flight direction and opposite to said longitudinal forward flight direction, said aircraft further comprising a vertical downward direction that is orthogonal to said longitudinal forward flight direction and a vertical upward direction that is also orthogonal to said longitudinal forward flight direction and opposite to said downward direction;
- said aircraft being configured to be forwardly propelled toward said longitudinal forward flight direction by at least one longitudinal rearward thrust ejected from said aircraft substantially toward said longitudinal rearward direction, wherein;
- said electrically powered fan module impels an exhaust air, wherein said electrically powered fan module comprises a rotational axis and an axial direction parallel to said rotational axis said electrically powered fan module expels said exhaust air into at least one air duct that conducts said exhaust air away from said electrically powered fan module substantially along a tangential direction;
- wherein said electrically powered fan module comprises at least two fan stages in series flow, said at least two fan stages in series flow including a first fan stage capable of a first fan stage rotational velocity and a second fan stage capable of a second fan stage
- rotational velocity, wherein said first fan stage feeds air to said second fan stage, and wherein said second fan stage rotational velocity is greater than said first fan stage rotational velocity;
- the first fan stage comprising a first diagonal fan having an outlet diameter greater than an inlet diameter, and the second fan stage comprising a second diagonal fan having an outlet diameter greater than an inlet diameter, and the inlet diameter of the second diagonal fan approximately equal to the outlet diameter of the first diagonal fan,
- wherein the first diagonal fan and second diagonal fan each have a plane of rotation and are each configured to impel exhaust air in a direction tangent to the plane of rotation, and both of the first diagonal fan and second diagonal fan are configured to increase an air speed between inlet and outlet;
- wherein said second diagonal fan is placed coaxial with and adjacent to said first diagonal fan such that air passes through said first diagonal fan to said second diagonal fan and then through said second diagonal fan along a helical path;
- and
- wherein the first and stage and second fan stage are placed end-to-end with the outlet of the first fan stage adjacent to the inlet of the second fan stage.
An aircraft comprising an electrically powered fan module, said aircraft further comprising a longitudinal forward flight direction and a longitudinal rearward direction parallel to said longitudinal forward flight direction and opposite to said longitudinal forward flight direction, said aircraft further comprising a vertical downward direction that is orthogonal to said longitudinal forward flight direction and toward the Earth and a vertical upward direction that is also orthogonal to said longitudinal forward flight direction and opposite to said downward direction;
- said aircraft being configured to be forwardly propelled toward said longitudinal forward flight direction by at least one longitudinal rearward thrust ejected from said aircraft substantially toward said longitudinal rearward direction, wherein
- said electrically powered fan module comprises at least two fan stages in series flow, said at least two fan stages in series flow including at least a 1st fan stage spinning at a 1st fan stage rotational velocity and a 2nd fan stage spinning at a 2nd fan stage rotational velocity, wherein said 1st fan stage feeds air to said 2nd fan stage, and wherein a ratio of said 2nd fan stage rotational velocity to said 1st fan stage rotational velocity is greater than 1.5;
- wherein
- said electrically powered fan module expels fan module exhaust air into at least one air duct or air duct system that conducts said exhaust air away from said electrically powered fan module and ejects said exhaust air out of said aircraft for thrust to accelerate said aircraft toward said longitudinal forward flight direction, or toward said upward direction, or simultaneously toward both said forward direction and said upward direction, or toward said longitudinal rearward direction;
- and
- the first fan stage comprising a first diagonal fan having an outlet diameter greater than an inlet diameter, and the second fan stage comprising a second diagonal fan having an outlet diameter greater than an inlet diameter, and the inlet diameter of the second diagonal fan approximately equal to the outlet diameter of the first diagonal fan;
- wherein the first and stage and second fan stage are placed end-to-end with the outlet of the first fan stage adjacent to the inlet of the second fan stage.
An aircraft comprising an electrically powered fan module, said aircraft further comprising a longitudinal forward flight direction and a longitudinal rearward direction parallel to said longitudinal forward flight direction and opposite to said longitudinal forward flight direction, said aircraft further comprising a vertical downward direction that is orthogonal to said longitudinal forward flight direction and toward the Earth and a vertical upward direction that is also orthogonal to said longitudinal forward flight direction and opposite to said downward direction;
- said aircraft being configured to be forwardly propelled toward said longitudinal forward flight direction by at least one longitudinal rearward thrust ejected from said aircraft substantially toward said longitudinal rearward direction, wherein;
- said electrically powered fan module impels an exhaust air, wherein said electrically powered fan module comprises a rotational axis and an axial direction parallel to said rotational axis;
- said electrically powered fan module expels said exhaust air into at least one air duct that conducts said exhaust air away from said electrically powered fan module substantially along a tangential direction;
- and
- wherein said electrically powered fan module comprises at least one fan stage including a 1st fan stage spinning in a 1st fan stage rotational direction, and wherein at least one of said aircraft and said electrically powered fan module comprises at least one flywheel module spinning in a flywheel module rotational direction that is opposite to said 1st fan stage rotational direction, wherein said 1st fan stage has a 1st fan stage axis of rotation and said flywheel module has a flywheel module axis of rotation wherein said 1st fan stage axis of rotation is also said flywheel module axis of rotation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.