{"id":854,"date":"2013-02-25T20:35:20","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T20:35:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=854"},"modified":"2013-02-25T20:35:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T20:35:20","slug":"sci-tech-darpa-seeking-next-gen-vtol-vehicles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"Sci-Tech: DARPA seeking next-gen VTOL vehicles"},"content":{"rendered":"

DARPA wants better vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing vehicles, particularly in these “four areas: speed, hover efficiency, cruise efficiency and useful load capacity”.<\/p>\n

DARPA Experimental Aircraft Program to Develop the
\nNext Generation of Vertical Flight<\/a>
\nHigher speeds, increased efficiency, elegant designs are the
\nfocus of new VTOL X-Plane<\/i><\/p>\n

One of the greatest challenges of the past half century for aerodynamics engineers has been how to increase the top speeds of aircraft that take off and land vertically without compromising the aircraft’s lift to power in hover or its efficiency during long-range flight.<\/p>\n

The versatility of helicopters and other vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft make them ideal for a host of military operations. Currently, only helicopters can maneuver in tight areas, land in unprepared areas, move in all directions, and hover in midair while holding a position. This versatility often makes rotary-wing and other VTOL aircraft the right aerial platform for transporting troops, surveillance operations, special operations and search-and-rescue missions.<\/p>\n

Compared to fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters are slower-leaving them more vulnerable to damage from enemy weapons. Special operations that rely on lightning-quick strikes and medical units that transport patients to care facilities need enhanced speed to shorten mission times, increase mission range, reduce the number of refueling events and, most important, reduce exposure to the adversary.<\/p>\n

By their very design, rotary-wing aircraft that take off and land vertically have a disadvantage achieving speeds comparable to fixed-wing aircraft. Since its invention, engineers have attempted to overcome this design barrier but have encountered lower fuel efficiency and less lift capacity, controllability, simplicity, and reliability of design. While engineers have improved the speed of fixed-wing aircraft-achieving two and three times the speeds of jets designed since the 1960s-attempts to increase efficient VTOL aircraft speed have stalled.<\/p>\n

“For the past 50 years, we have seen jets go higher and faster while VTOL aircraft speeds have flat-lined and designs have become increasingly complex,” said Ashish Bagai<\/a>, DARPA program manager. “To overcome this problem, DARPA has launched the VTOL X-Plane program to challenge industry and innovative engineers to concurrently push the envelope in four areas: speed, hover efficiency, cruise efficiency and useful load capacity.”<\/p>\n

“We have not made this easy,” he continued. “Strapping rockets onto the back of a helicopter is not the type of approach we’re looking for. The engineering community is familiar with the numerous attempts in the past that have not worked. This time, rather than tweaking past designs, we are looking for true cross-pollinations of designs and technologies from the fixed-wing and rotary-wing worlds. The elegant confluence of these engineering design paradigms is where this program should find some interesting results.”<\/p>\n

A Proposers’ Day will be held on March 14th.<\/p>\n

The Broad Agency Announcement for the solicitation can be found at: https:\/\/www.fbo.gov\/spg\/ODA\/DARPA\/CMO\/DARPA-BAA-13-19\/listing.html<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DARPA wants better vertical-takeoff, vertical-landing vehicles, particularly in these “four areas: speed, hover efficiency, cruise efficiency and useful load capacity”. DARPA Experimental Aircraft Program to Develop the Next Generation of Vertical Flight Higher speeds, increased efficiency, elegant designs are the focus of new VTOL X-Plane One of the greatest challenges of the past half century … Continue reading Sci-Tech: DARPA seeking next-gen VTOL vehicles<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-and-technology"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p34aWK-dM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6975,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=6975","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":0},"title":"Sci-Tech: DARPA selects 4 designs for Vertical Takeoff & Landing X-Planes","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"DARPA has announced the winners of the first round of its\u00a0Vertical Takeoff and Landing Experimental Plane (VTOL X-Plane)\u00a0project: VTOL X-Plane Program Takes Off DARPA tasks four companies with designing new aircraft to revolutionize vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) flight capabilities \u00a0 For generations, new designs for vertical takeoff and landing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science and Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"Boeing VTOL X-Plane Concept_b_500x250","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/Boeing-VTOL-X-Plane-Concept_b_500x250.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12284,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=12284","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":1},"title":"Sci-Tech: DARPA selects electric-rotor design for vertical take-off and landing X-Plane","author":"TopSpacer","date":"March 4, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Aurora Flight Sciences has beaten several much bigger companies for a DARPA contract to build\u00a0a vertical take off and landing demonstration vehicle that has much higher performance that helicopters or tiltrotor designs like the Osprey\u00a0now in operation:\u00a0DARPA Selects Aurora to Build VTOL X-Plane Technology Demonstrator Aurora's\u00a0LightningStrike has\u00a0an unusual design with\u00a024\u00a0electric\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science and Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"b0b7478e-e539-4c70-b657-172fa07b97b4[1]","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/b0b7478e-e539-4c70-b657-172fa07b97b41.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6444,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=6444","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":2},"title":"Sci-Tech: DARPA ARES to develop unmanned VTOL vehicles for front-line supply services","author":"TopSpacer","date":"February 12, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still waiting for my vertical takeoff and landing car but meanwhile\u00a0DARPA\u00a0is aiming for medium-scale unmanned ducted fan VTOLs that can bring supplies and other services to places hard-to-reach by helicopters or other means: ARES Aims to Provide More Front-line Units with Mission-tailored VTOL Capabilities Unmanned aerial logistics system would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science and Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"ARES Concepts v2","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/ARES-Concepts-v2.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4702,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=4702","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":3},"title":"Sci-Tech: Carter Aviation makes progress on high speed, long distance VTOL\/STOL aircraft","author":"TopSpacer","date":"September 28, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been following Carter Aviation Technologies for years as they developed their\u00a0Slowed-Rotor\/Compound (\"SR\/C\u2122\") Technology, which couples the speed, range and efficiency of an airplane with the vertical takeoff and landing (\"VTOL\") capability of a helicopter and is scalable in size from very small unmanned aerial vehicles (\"UAVs\") to large transport\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science and Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/qh6ZCXBiRSQ\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19941,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=19941","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":4},"title":"Technologies of interest – Oct.16.2019","author":"TopSpacer","date":"October 16, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"A sampling of recent items about new robotic and aviation technologies (previous tech posts): [ Update Oct.17: Vertical Aerospace in the UK debuts the Seraph eVTOL aircraft:\u00a0 World first: Vertical Aerospace flies electric air taxi capable of carrying 250kg - Vertical Aerospace The Seraph was built to test new technologies\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science and Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"\/\/ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com\/e\/ir?t=hobbyspace&l=am2&o=1&a=1524742414","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3219,"url":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=3219","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":5},"title":"Sci-Tech: Updates on VTOL vehicle projects at UrbanAero and Aerofex","author":"TopSpacer","date":"July 6, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"UrbanAero, which I've posted about occasionally over the years, is developing vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, both manned and unmanned, based on a design using large ducted fans. They have recently split their efforts into two subsidiaries:\u00a0 Tactical Robotics will focus on military and homeland security markets while Metro Skyways\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Science and Technology"","block_context":{"text":"Science and Technology","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tactical-robotics.com\/userfiles\/images\/4%282%29.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}