Design and Analysis of VTOL Operated Intercity Electrical Vehicle for Urban Air Mobility

This paper discusses the conceptual design of an intercity electrical vertical take-off-and-landing aircraft. A literature survey of existing eVTOL aircrafts, configuration selection, initial sizing, weight estimation, modelling and analysis was conducted. The present intercity eVTOL aircraft has the capability to carry four passengers along with one pilot for a distance of 500 km. Two specific aircraft modes, such as air-taxi and air-cargo mode, are considered in the present design. Market entry is predicted before 2031. Subsequently, innovative technologies are incorporated into the design. The present design features an aerodynamically shaped fuselage, tapered wing and a V-tail design. It can carry a nominal payload of 500 kg to a maximum range of 500 km at a cruise speed of Mach 0.168. The present eVTOL is comprised of a 5 m-long fuselage and an 11 m wingspan. It utilizes six tilt-rotor propeller engines. The maximum take-off weight and empty weight are 1755 kg and 1255 kg, respectively. The unit price is expected to be between USD 14.83 and 17.36 million. This aircraft has an aesthetically pleasing, intelligent and feasible design.

Decision tree classifiers for unmanned aircraft configuration selection

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the possibility of lowering the time taken during the aircraft design for unmanned aerial vehicles by using machine learning (ML) for the configuration selection phase. In this work, a database of unmanned aircraft is compiled and is proposed that decision tree classifiers (DTC) can understand the relations between mission and operational requirements and the resulting aircraft configuration. Design/methodology/approach This paper presents a ML-based approach to configuration selection of unmanned aircraft. Multiple DTC are built to predict the overall configuration. The classifiers are trained with a database of 118 unmanned aircraft with 57 characteristics, 47 of which are inputs for the classification problem, and 10 are the desired outputs, such as wing configuration or engine type. Findings This paper shows that DTC can be used for the configuration selection of unmanned aircraft with reasonable accuracy, understanding the connections between the different mission requirements and the culminating configuration. The framework is also capable of dealing with incomplete databases, maximizing the available knowledge. Originality/value This paper increases the computational usage for the aircraft design while retaining requirements’ traceability and increasing decision awareness.

CONFIGURATION SELECTION AND ANALYSIS OF A SUPERSTRUCTURE SOLAR SAIL

Solar sail propulsion is one of the most innovative spaceship propulsion system which make use of the radiation pressure in space. The continuous supply of radiation pressure means the ship has infinite propellant reserve. Theoretically, the solar sail keeps accelerating to gain high velocities due to this continuous supply of radiation pressure, therefore this system is ideal for interstellar exploration. As there are numerous developments going on this field of study, it is important to have a generalized sail design that can be used for further developments. This paper gives the configuration selection of the sail along with calculations and analysis to develop a superstructure solar sail, which is theoretically ideal for interstellar exploration and for future engineering