Chinese UAV/UCAV development
- Thread starter AssassinsMace
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plawolf
Lieutenant General
I don’t know if it has been commercialised and put into production yet, but I see the potential for this design to be viable without needing fundamental design changes.
broadsword
Brigadier
I think it must be battery powered, hence the number of props.
At least they don't allow the props to spin freely (and the blades are in the same direction as the nose of the plane) when they are not in VTOL mode. That should reduce the drag somewhat.
Problem with using tilt-rotor designs:
- more complex mechanical linkages (less reliable)
- more complex control system
- heavier weight due to additional tilting components
- do the benefits of less motors really out-weight the added complexities?
Having more motors doesn't automatically mean less efficiency. In fact, using multiple smaller brushless motors are typically more efficient than using less larger motors. This is why you see the fully solar powered UAVs/planes all use large number of small motor/propellers.
Fault tolerance is another reason for more motors. If you only have 4 motor/props, then a single failure will mean you need a special fault tolerance controller to compensate, whereas the default controller can probably compensate for losing a single motor on a 8 or 9 motor setup.
- more complex mechanical linkages (less reliable)
- more complex control system
- heavier weight due to additional tilting components
- do the benefits of less motors really out-weight the added complexities?
Having more motors doesn't automatically mean less efficiency. In fact, using multiple smaller brushless motors are typically more efficient than using less larger motors. This is why you see the fully solar powered UAVs/planes all use large number of small motor/propellers.
Fault tolerance is another reason for more motors. If you only have 4 motor/props, then a single failure will mean you need a special fault tolerance controller to compensate, whereas the default controller can probably compensate for losing a single motor on a 8 or 9 motor setup.
Multiple lift rotor is good for redundancy. They will probably lift-off and land on unprepared landing site... losing a prop is a big probability. I'm building rc drone and plane for hobby and you don't need a lot of grass to cripple a lifting prop.
delete after re-examine the photo.
I am not sure if some of us thought that the VTVL UAV is fully electrical. It is not, the pusher and tractor propellers are driven by internal combustion engines. The eight lift engines are electrical driven. This reduce the demand on heavy batteries. It also eliminate weight penalty for tilting the drive train of internal combustion engines.
broadsword
Brigadier
They are available in two versions. Electric and Hybrid.
China's Autoflight puts a canard twist on its latest long-range eVTOL
By
October 13, 2020
The V400 Albatross is a large, long-range cargo-carrying eVTOL aircraft
Autoflight
VIEW 4 IMAGES
At the 2020 World UAV Conference in Shenzhen, Chinese heavy drone company Autoflight unveiled a big new canard-style electric VTOL cargo drone, and announced its intentions to develop a similar aircraft for urban air taxi operations.
The new V400 Albatross is an unmanned cargo drone capable of carrying payloads up to 100 kg (220 lb) over impressively long distances. Its fully electric version offers a range of 300 km (186 mi) carrying a full payload, and a hybrid version is available as well, promising 1,000 km (620-mile) flight ranges.
As with many eVTOL designs, it's built to transition, rising and landing vertically as a hexacopter on six large props, then transitioning to horizontal flight on a slim, 9-metre (29.5 foot) wing and a smaller canard wing at the front, with power supplied by a pair of push and pull props on the front and rear of the main fuselage. Its carbon composite body keeps weight down to around 300 kg (660 lb).
A 100 kg load could be transported 1,000 km using Autoflight's hybrid powertrain
Autoflight
It's designed to operate autonomously, using a flight controller that Autoflight is amusingly forced to stress has "completely independent intellectual property rights." It's got built-in sense-and-avoid capabilities, and full-time 4G/5G data connections along with a full sensor suite that includes ground radar to assist with VTOL.
Autoflight says the Albatross will be used for "express logistics," and emergency operations, particularly where mountains and islands make ground transport tricky or time-consuming.
But the company has bigger targets in its sights, and in the same press conference it announced its intention to move into the air taxi space with plans for autonomous passenger-carrying eVTOLs, as well as larger-scale logistics aircraft. Autoflight says it's looking at the "air logistics operation system" side of the problem as well as 3D vertical commuting.
China's Autoflight puts a canard twist on its latest long-range eVTOL
By
October 13, 2020
The V400 Albatross is a large, long-range cargo-carrying eVTOL aircraft
Autoflight
VIEW 4 IMAGES
At the 2020 World UAV Conference in Shenzhen, Chinese heavy drone company Autoflight unveiled a big new canard-style electric VTOL cargo drone, and announced its intentions to develop a similar aircraft for urban air taxi operations.
The new V400 Albatross is an unmanned cargo drone capable of carrying payloads up to 100 kg (220 lb) over impressively long distances. Its fully electric version offers a range of 300 km (186 mi) carrying a full payload, and a hybrid version is available as well, promising 1,000 km (620-mile) flight ranges.
As with many eVTOL designs, it's built to transition, rising and landing vertically as a hexacopter on six large props, then transitioning to horizontal flight on a slim, 9-metre (29.5 foot) wing and a smaller canard wing at the front, with power supplied by a pair of push and pull props on the front and rear of the main fuselage. Its carbon composite body keeps weight down to around 300 kg (660 lb).
A 100 kg load could be transported 1,000 km using Autoflight's hybrid powertrain
Autoflight
It's designed to operate autonomously, using a flight controller that Autoflight is amusingly forced to stress has "completely independent intellectual property rights." It's got built-in sense-and-avoid capabilities, and full-time 4G/5G data connections along with a full sensor suite that includes ground radar to assist with VTOL.
Autoflight says the Albatross will be used for "express logistics," and emergency operations, particularly where mountains and islands make ground transport tricky or time-consuming.
But the company has bigger targets in its sights, and in the same press conference it announced its intention to move into the air taxi space with plans for autonomous passenger-carrying eVTOLs, as well as larger-scale logistics aircraft. Autoflight says it's looking at the "air logistics operation system" side of the problem as well as 3D vertical commuting.
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