rides

01.20.10 NASA will officially unveil its newest ride, which will quite possibly illustrate how electric flight can revolutionize personal transportation. The most limiting characteristic is that it has a range of only 50 miles. However, batteries are growing more dense by the day, so in years to come, the range will be drastically improved.

Being electrically propelled means the craft requires no air intake, which in turn means (in theory) it can reach 30,000 feet before battery power limitations would force it to descend. Obviously, a human pilot would require a pressurized cabin.

The aircraft is a conceptual design focusing on the ability of a redundant electric propulsion system to provide new capabilities for Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft. Specifically utilizing electric motor variable rpm to accomplish a low tipspeed prop-rotor (400 ft/sec tip speed at hover and 200 ft/sec at cruise) to accomplish an order of magnitude reduction in community noise for close proximity operations (30-40 db reduction). The variable rpm capability also achieves a 25% improvement in prop-rotor efficiency through operation at optimal advance ratios.