“WATER” POWERED VTOLs

You are looking at the first VTOL, designed by the genius that invented the use of Alternating Current to power electric motors. His patent was issued after he spent the last years of his life, trying to convince everyone that the electromagnetic waves he knew how to generate would soon power the world, and even be turned into a “death ray” (not his term) to be used as a military weapon. He was right, totally crazy but right. Electromagnetic energy is now being used to drive electric motors in the latest aircraft concepts and test models to provide quite hover capabilities. And given the breakthrough of generating massive amounts of coherent laser infra-red light, using semiconductor technology, the military has developed a directed energy weapon that can shoot down (sorta) aircraft, satellites, helicopters and even a formation of NYC pigeons that Mr. Tesla would feed from the window of his hotel lodgings as he lay dying after inventing too much stuff, before their time. This aircraft concept was to be powered by a gas (steam) “turbine” of his design that did not use “turbine BLADES.” He did NOT provide brilliant innovation as to how enough hot water would be heated, in a furnace light enough, to generate enough propeller output power to drive the “lift fan” sufficiently to hover.

LH2 CRYO-COPTER GUTS

SHOWN HERE IS THE FIRST DESIGN FOR LH2 TANKING INTEGRATED WITH A SUPER-CONDUCTING MOTOR DRIVING A SLOW, QUIET SINGLE LIFT FAN FOR FUTURE VTOLS

WHO ARE THE CONSORTIA CONTRIBUTORS?  

This “HUB” is the digital home of diverse innovators working for the next 10 years, cooperatively on the same, singular mission objective. That is not to save the global atmosphere, but to deliver “EMERGENCY VEHICLES” needed to deal with all the disasters that will be created by climate change. These innovators (gov agencies, Universities, big and small corporations and especially AGGRESIVE investors) will be using funds from various charitable R&D trusts as well as tax free city/state development “bonds” to be sold over the next decade

Most VTOL innovations exploit the “toy-quad-copter” concept of multiple motors (& propellers) based on the high power per kilo of weight available from permanent magnet DC motors. Key to that aircraft design strategy has been the 4, or 5 or 6 (or more) “DC-power plants changing the current (RPM speed) to the motors, and/or changing the prop’s angle of attack. That works well for staying in a hover mode, but that is very inefficient, so all VTOLs now promote the rapis transition of leaving the hover configuration (for take off) and moving forward horizontally. The Joby aircraft tilts its well designed lift-fan propellers, from vertical to horizontal for efficient forward flight. Others simply shut down the multi-motor “lift function” and stability of many horizontal motors, and at sufficient altitude, turn on a forward thrust(s) to enable typical “wing” structures to provide efficient lift, for maximum travel distance on a given Gigajoule of stored energy. Liquid Hydrogen will change that dynamic. It permits a single (or 2 or 3, or 4) lift fan of much LARGER dimension, with LOTS of lift fan blades (more than 5), to provide excellent HOVER efficiency by SLOWLY rotating the unique thrust-fan which, in turn, slows the downdraft airflow and hence the level of noise during near-ground hover. Adding to that, the best aerodynamic efficiency would be to put the lift-fan into a duct, and the best of that is to have two counter-rotating fans in a proper ducting (akin to Bell’s solution). The end result is HOVERING EFFICIENCY, especially with lots of stored energy, is the breakthrough.

WHAT CAN WE SAY HERE? (QUOTE STUFF) 

The history of electric powered VTOL flight was in the hands of Mike Hirschberg, editor of “Vertiflite” the association magazine/website for the Vertical Flight Society. (he is seated third from the right (dark business jacket) at the table of innovators who launched the TRANSFORMATIONAL VTOL consortium. On the far left seat of the table, (in his white “smoking”) is the “GODFATHER” of hydrogen powered VTOL aircraft R&D, based on nearly 50 years of obsessive commitment to the subject, starting in 1970 when working effectively as a “venture capitalist” in the Central Research Labs of the 3M company (which has had a LOT to do with the materials issue of cryogenic insulation, fuel cell PEMs, aircraft fabrication adhesives, etc.)  

Some Useful links

To be available soon

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