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The Air-Car Research Association Request For Proposals Dated December 2009
(This is adapted from a similar document by the Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency by changing:
- the title to read Business Air and Road Vehicle Technology";
- the Technology Areas to read "Combination Air and Road Vehicles":
- the Objective from "military scouting and personnel transport missions" to "business people, cargo, and/or equipment trips"; and
- the objective for "vertical take-off and landing" to "short take-off and landing".)
TITLE: Business Air and Road Vehicle Technology
OBJECTIVE: Define new and innovative technology components that enable
building a vehicle which can be used as a 2-person ground transport
that can both drive on roads or be changed into a flying craft with short take
off capability. Identify selected technologies providing propulsion, morphing
wings, and/or flight controls that provide core elements for this multi-person
vehicle. Identify issues to be resolved via trade studies and define demonstrations
establishing the feasibility of the identified core component technologies.
DESCRIPTION: A business air vehicle that could transport two persons either by driving on the ground or by flying would be suitable for many business people, cargo, and/or equipment trips. Desired business air vehicle characteristics would be the ability to fly for 600 miles carrying a 2-person payload on one tank of fuel and can also safely travel on roads. The vehicle must be no wider than 8.5 feet and no longer than 24 feet and no higher than 7 feet when in the road configuration. Vehicle control must support manually driving the vehicle on the ground and fully automated flight with manual flight control inputs that can override the fully automatic system. The challenge is to define the major components of such a vehicle that would be suitable for business people, cargo, and/or equipment trips, yet are small enough, inexpensive enough, and easy enough to operate that it can be widely used. To achieve this it will be necessary to explore new and innovative technologies in one or more of the following areas: - Propulsion concepts that include short take off and landing, optimized loading for the combined fly/drive mission, size, weight, and power suitable for a road drivable vehicle, efficient power plant and energy management combined with low specific fuel consumption, and installation considerations related to safety, vehicle controllability, and passenger/payload carrying on a vehicle. The optimized wing loading should allow safe take off/landing at unprepared sites. - Morphing wing/surfaces considerations including safe and rapid deployment and retraction, rugged construction, and ease of operation for a vehicle that can drive at up to 60 mph and fly at up to 150 mph. - Flight control considerations include human interfaces to autopilot, flight director, and/or auto-navigation systems, automated navigation/ positioning, automated sensors, automated flight planning and de-confliction with other users of the airspace. Size, weight, and power must be paramount as well as redundancy and reliability suitable for human passengers. Refer to www.strongware.com/dragon .
PHASE I: Prepare an initial combined business air and road
vehicle concept design that supports the modeling of selected key elements
(propulsion, morphing wing/surfaces, flight control). Develop detailed analysis
of predicted performance for the selected key technical elements (propulsion,
morphing wing/surfaces, and flight control). Perform modeling and simulation of
the selected key technical elements, and define and develop key component
technical milestones. Phase I deliverables will include, for the selected key
technologies, suitable simulations, and modeling results and the development
plans, and a full-size mockup model.
PHASE II: Fabricate and demonstrate prototype vehicles.