Carter Aviation Technologies has completed initial flight tests of its proof-of-concept Personal Air Vehicle (PAV), an aircraft that combines a rotor for vertical takeoff and landing with a propeller and wing for efficient high-speed flight.
The “2+2”-seat PAV uses Carter’s slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) technology. The rotor is unpowered, as in an autogyro, but when spun up by the engine allows a “jump” takeoff. On landing, the energy stored in the high-inertia rotor allows the aircraft to autorotate to a “zero-roll” landing.
The PAV was flown as an autogyro for the first phase of testing, which included several vertical takeoffs and landings. The wing will be added for the second phase and the flight envelope expanded by shifting lift from the rotor to the wing and slowing the rotor to allow higher forward speed.
Flight testing began on Dec 2 and was split into two phases to make it easier to fine-tune the control system in the aircraft’s two modes. “For takeoff and landing it’s an autogyro. For cruise it’s a fixed-wing. We’ve now tested and refined the autogyro segment,” says company President Jay Carter Jr.
Wichita Falls, Texas-based Carter is offering the PAV as a kitplane, and has licensed its SR/C technology to AAI, which plans to fly vertical-takeoff-and-landing surveillance and cargo unmanned aircraft prototypes using the concept. AAI is also designing a “fly-drive” tactical vehicle using SR/C for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
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