{"id":10759,"date":"2016-03-10T15:41:37","date_gmt":"2016-03-10T22:41:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=10759"},"modified":"2016-03-10T15:41:38","modified_gmt":"2016-03-10T22:41:38","slug":"aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora Advances Flight Sciences with X-Plane VTOL"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Electric Aircraft Symposia attendees will be familiar with presentations by Dr. John S. Langford, Chairman and CEO of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aurora.aero\/\">Aurora Flight Sciences,<\/a> an aeronautical firm continuously redefining the leading edge of aerial technology.\u00a0 He has shared the firm\u2019s achievements in autonomous flight, with the company\u2019s Centaur, a twin-engine light twin going from takeoff to landing at a distant airport without the need for pilot intervention.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Aurora&#039;s LightningStrike VTOL X-Plane\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/LylpcttuQ_U?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>With other research projects on solar power, high altitude reconnaissance, and future \u201cdouble-bubble\u201d wide-body airliners, Aurora apparently showed enough innovative capacity to win an award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for its newest X-Plane, an unpiloted vertical takeoff and landing speedster called Lightning Strike.<\/p>\n<p>This Phase 2 award takes from a preliminary design study to a Design, Development and Integration phase, which DARPA explains, \u201c\u2026 addresses in innovative ways many longstanding technical obstacles, the biggest of which is that the design characteristics that enable good hovering capabilities are completely different from those that enable fast forward flight. Among the revolutionary design advances to be incorporated in the technology demonstrator:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cElectric power generation and distribution systems to enable multiple fans and transmission-agnostic air vehicle designs.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cModularized, cellular aerodynamic wing design with integrated propulsion to enable the wings to perform efficiently in forward flight, hover and when transitioning between them.<\/li>\n<li>\u201cOveractuated flight control systems that could change the thrust of each fan to increase maneuverability and efficiency.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div id=\"attachment_10770\" style=\"width: 538px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10770\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10770\" src=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-hover-528x297.jpg\" alt=\"Lightning Strike hovering over terrain that often chokes conventional helicopters\" width=\"528\" height=\"297\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-hover-528x297.jpg 528w, http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-hover-300x169.jpg 300w, http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-hover-768x432.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-10770\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lightning Strike hovering over terrain that often chokes conventional helicopters<\/p><\/div>\n<p>All the new technology embodied in this aircraft did not exist several decades\u00a0ago, and the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.darpa.mil\/news-events\/2016-03-03\">performance requirements sought by DARPA<\/a> would certainly have raised eyebrows even 10 years ago.\u00a0 The craft must achieve a top speed of 300 to 400 knots (345 to 460 mph), raise aircraft hover efficiency from 60- to 75-percent, present a lift-to-drag ratio of at least 10, and carry a useful load \u201cof at least 40 percent of the vehicle\u2019s projected gross weight of 10,000-12,000 pounds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Such expectations remind your editor of <em>Airwolf<\/em>, a TV series from the mid-1980s about a supersonic helicopter.\u00a0 Despite the aerodynamic problems from having advancing and retreating rotor blades alternating between supersonic and subsonic regimes at every rotation, Airwolf was sonically stealthy, able to sneak up on the bad guys it helped dispatch every week.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=aqcQUmKJEK8<\/p>\n<p>Lightning Strike avoids those sticky issues, though, by distributing thrust from a total of 24 box-fan-like thrusters (18 on the wing, six on the canard).\u00a0 These ducted fans are reminiscent of high-performance electric ducted fans (EDFs) found in model aircraft, but translating the three kilowatts produced by Lightning Strike\u2019s turboshaft engine \u2014 the same used in V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.\u00a0 Instead of mechanically driving two large propellers like those on the V-22, the engine drives three Honeywell generators that feed electricity to 24 motors.\u00a0 Controlled by triple-redundant actuators, each motor is \u201cover-actuated,\u201d as are most systems on the airplane.<\/p>\n<p>This leads to complications in programming algorithms that can adequately exploit the differential thrust from 24 propulsors and ensure outcomes that point the airplane in the right direction in all axes.\u00a0 Redundant systems typically have some form of \u201cvoting\u201d mechanism to ensure compliance with the \u201cmajority opinion\u201d of the multiple controllers.\u00a0 The challenges involved are anything but trivial.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_10771\" style=\"width: 538px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10771\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10771\" src=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-at-speed-528x408.jpg\" alt=\"Lightning Strike at high altitude, high speed\" width=\"528\" height=\"408\" srcset=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-at-speed-528x408.jpg 528w, http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-at-speed-300x232.jpg 300w, http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-at-speed-768x593.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 528px) 100vw, 528px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-10771\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Lightning Strike at high altitude, high speed<\/p><\/div>\n<p>One structural sidelight of note: the multi-cellular wing construction makes the airplane essentially a bi-plane, with great wing stiffness built in.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Langford <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aurora.aero\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/Aurora-VTOL-XPlane-Press-Release_FINAL.pdf\">shared his anticipation of success<\/a> in those challenges.\u00a0 \u201cAurora is proud to support DARPA on what we all hope to be a truly historic breakthrough in aviation technology. If successful, VTOL X-Plane\u2019s radically improved flight capabilities could lead to revolutionary advancement of the U.S. military\u2019s future mission capabilities. We\u2019re honored to have been selected by DARPA to build and flight test the demonstrator aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"facebook_like\"><iframe src=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/plugins\/like.php?href=http%3A%2F%2Fcafe.foundation%2Fblog%2Faurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol%2F&amp;layout=standard&amp;show_faces=true&amp;width=500&amp;action=like&amp;font=segoe+ui&amp;colorscheme=light&amp;height=80\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"border:none; overflow:hidden; width:500px; height:80px;\" allowTransparency=\"true\"><\/iframe><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Electric Aircraft Symposia attendees will be familiar with presentations by Dr. John S. Langford, Chairman and CEO of Aurora Flight Sciences, an aeronautical firm continuously redefining the leading edge of aerial technology.\u00a0 He has shared the firm\u2019s achievements in autonomous flight, with the company\u2019s Centaur, a twin-engine light twin going from takeoff to landing at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6680,15,6894,14,1],"tags":[7105,4098,1816,7101,7102,7104,7103],"class_list":["post-10759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-electric-aircraft-components","category-electric_powerplants","category-hybrid-aircraft","category-sustainable_ga","category-uncategorized","tag-airwolf-tv-series","tag-aurora-flight-sciences","tag-defense-advanced-research-projects-agency-darpa","tag-dr-john-s-langford","tag-lightning-strike-vtol-x-plane","tag-overactuation","tag-redundant-control-systems"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Aurora Advances Flight Sciences with X-Plane VTOL - CAFE Foundation Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Aurora Advances Flight Sciences with X-Plane VTOL - CAFE Foundation Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Electric Aircraft Symposia attendees will be familiar with presentations by Dr. John S. Langford, Chairman and CEO of Aurora Flight Sciences, an aeronautical firm continuously redefining the leading edge of aerial technology.\u00a0 He has shared the firm\u2019s achievements in autonomous flight, with the company\u2019s Centaur, a twin-engine light twin going from takeoff to landing at [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CAFE Foundation Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-03-10T22:41:37+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-10T22:41:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/lightning-strike-hover-528x297.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dean Sigler\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dean Sigler\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cafe.foundation\\\/blog\\\/aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cafe.foundation\\\/blog\\\/aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dean Sigler\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/cafe.foundation\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/e9c06a89f78d39fc03473ec90f4902a7\"},\"headline\":\"Aurora Advances Flight Sciences with X-Plane VTOL\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-03-10T22:41:37+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-10T22:41:38+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cafe.foundation\\\/blog\\\/aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":662,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/cafe.foundation\\\/blog\\\/aurora-advances-flight-sciences-with-x-plane-vtol\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/cafe.foundation\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2016\\\/03\\\/lightning-strike-hover-528x297.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Airwolf TV series\",\"Aurora Flight Sciences\",\"Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)\",\"Dr. John S. 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