Goodbye, airfield: Russia has invented a passenger vertical take-off aircraft

Russian developer Sergei Cheranev has registered a patent for a passenger vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft designed to transport 30–40 people. The proposed design combines aircraft speed and helicopter freedom of choice of site, the document was published in the FIPS database.

According to the idea, the aircraft will receive an elliptical fuselage section with an increased usable area, a high wing and a rotary scheme.

The wings themselves were proposed to be hinged to the fuselage, they will be able to rotate from a horizontal position to a vertical one using hydraulic cylinders. Apparently, this key solution will allow the machine to take off and land vertically.

The developer proposed placing turbofan engines on remote pylons under the wing. During take-off and landing they will operate in turboprop mode and drive large diameter propellers.

In horizontal flight, the aircraft switches to turbojet mode — the propellers are turned off, braked and folded on the wing, pressed by electromagnets.

This approach, presumably, can solve the main problem of classic jet VTOL aircraft — the hot jet. The aircraft can land on unprepared ground sites without burning the soil and the risk of fires. At the same time, it will be able to hover over a point and maneuver forward, back and to the sides, controlling the ailerons.

The project is focused on remote areas of Siberia and the Far East, where there are no suitable airfields, Cheranev explained. But the aircraft is also suitable for regional passenger lines, ambulance aviation, charter transportation and may be of interest to the military when transporting small groups.

Earlier «Первый технический» wrote that in Russia developed a kit for converting production aircraft into hybrid aircraft.

Read more materials on the topic:

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• A method of controlling a helicopter without a tail rotor has been developed in Russia
• Technology like on the Su-57 was proposed for civilian aircraft