Battery-Powered S2 Helicopter-Plane Hybrid Can Take Off Vertically
Powering down a runway in an aeroplane could be a thing of the past - for the rich and famous at least - if this concept for a personal aircraft takes off.
A team of engineers who specialise in the design of wind-energy turbines have designed a small electric aeroplane that can take off vertically.
Its lift off would be similar to a helicopter's, but once airborne, the S2 aircraft's 12 rotor blade motors fold up so it can glide along like a conventional plane.
Entrepreneur JoeBen Bevirt has not yet built a full scale prototype of the S2, but around 24 10lb (4.5kg) models exist to prove the design works.
The models have piqued the interest of Nasa, which is now funding the development of a 55lb (25kg) version.
Joby Aviation, the firm behind the design, which is based in Santa Cruz, California, has produced supercomputer simulations of a 1,700lb (770kg) full-scale S2 aircraft and claim it should be able to fly two people between New York City and Boston - a 200mile (322km) journey - in just one hour.
Such a trip would require 50kilowatt-hours of electricity, which would make it around five times more efficient that a personal aeroplane burning approximately one-and-a-half gallons of fuel.
Mr Bevirt told Popsci that the plane would not have been possible a decade ago, but compact and efficient motors, increasingly power dense batteries, smart control systems and ever tinier sensors mean that the S2 could soon take to the skies.
Its most noticeable feature is retractable arms that reposition the motors from a horizontal position - like a helicopter to take off vertically - to folding up for aerodynamic flight.
Computers can adjust the speed of the motors 4,000 times per second to optimise efficiency, reduce noise and improve flight control, according to the firm.
The models demonstrate that 12 compact electric motors work three times as efficiently as combustion engines on personal airplanes, which could make the S2 a safer way for the rich and famous to travel in the future, the company said.
Around China: Unmanned helicopters help Chinese farmers
Each April, farmers in east China's Anhui Province toil to protect crops from pests and disease, but for those who work the wheat fields in Liuzhai Village, the job has been made a little easier with help from above.
In this village in Bozhou City, several unmanned remote-control helicopters were busy spraying pesticides over the fields.
"I cannot imagine that four helicopters finished spraying farm chemicals on 1,000 mu (66.7 hectares) of land within two hours," said Liu Baohua, a villager from Liuzhai Village.
Zhang Kunyi, the technician who controlled the helicopters, said that each helicopter can carry about 15 kilograms of pesticides to spray 20 to 25 mu of land.
Liu said it used to take farmers two days to cover that amount of land. In addition to fatigue from carrying heavy pesticides while working, farmers were often soaked in health-threatening chemicals, Liu said. The crop-dusting helicopters have not only improved farming efficiency, but also protect farmers from poisonous pesticides.
Along with Anhui, unmanned helicopters have also become popular in farming in the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Shandong and Jiangxi since 2012, according to Zhou Liru, chairman of Bozhou City Traffic Intelligence Aviation Plant Protection Technology Co., Ltd., where the helicopters were produced.
Liu said the cost of using the helicopters is no more than that of employing locals. Farmers may use helicopters from their village agricultural cooperatives if they provide the pesticides and pay eight yuan (1.3 U.S. dollars) per mu of cropland.
As a growing number of villagers find jobs in big cities, more and more rural elderly and women have stayed at home to shoulder the responsibilities of farming, and mechanized farming has really helped these groups, Liu said.
China has vowed efforts to raise its farming mechanization rate to more than 61 percent in 2014, according to Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin at a work conference in February.
The country will step up the implementation of subsidy policies for farm machine purchases and push forward mechanization in the production of major crops this year, according to the ministry.
China's farming mechanization rate reached 59 percent in 2013, up 2 percentage points from the previous year.
sources:[http://en.twwtn.com/Information/22_66104.html]
A team of engineers who specialise in the design of wind-energy turbines have designed a small electric aeroplane that can take off vertically.
Its lift off would be similar to a helicopter's, but once airborne, the S2 aircraft's 12 rotor blade motors fold up so it can glide along like a conventional plane.
Entrepreneur JoeBen Bevirt has not yet built a full scale prototype of the S2, but around 24 10lb (4.5kg) models exist to prove the design works.
The models have piqued the interest of Nasa, which is now funding the development of a 55lb (25kg) version.
Joby Aviation, the firm behind the design, which is based in Santa Cruz, California, has produced supercomputer simulations of a 1,700lb (770kg) full-scale S2 aircraft and claim it should be able to fly two people between New York City and Boston - a 200mile (322km) journey - in just one hour.
Such a trip would require 50kilowatt-hours of electricity, which would make it around five times more efficient that a personal aeroplane burning approximately one-and-a-half gallons of fuel.
Mr Bevirt told Popsci that the plane would not have been possible a decade ago, but compact and efficient motors, increasingly power dense batteries, smart control systems and ever tinier sensors mean that the S2 could soon take to the skies.
Its most noticeable feature is retractable arms that reposition the motors from a horizontal position - like a helicopter to take off vertically - to folding up for aerodynamic flight.
Computers can adjust the speed of the motors 4,000 times per second to optimise efficiency, reduce noise and improve flight control, according to the firm.
The models demonstrate that 12 compact electric motors work three times as efficiently as combustion engines on personal airplanes, which could make the S2 a safer way for the rich and famous to travel in the future, the company said.
Around China: Unmanned helicopters help Chinese farmers
Each April, farmers in east China's Anhui Province toil to protect crops from pests and disease, but for those who work the wheat fields in Liuzhai Village, the job has been made a little easier with help from above.
In this village in Bozhou City, several unmanned remote-control helicopters were busy spraying pesticides over the fields.
"I cannot imagine that four helicopters finished spraying farm chemicals on 1,000 mu (66.7 hectares) of land within two hours," said Liu Baohua, a villager from Liuzhai Village.
Zhang Kunyi, the technician who controlled the helicopters, said that each helicopter can carry about 15 kilograms of pesticides to spray 20 to 25 mu of land.
Liu said it used to take farmers two days to cover that amount of land. In addition to fatigue from carrying heavy pesticides while working, farmers were often soaked in health-threatening chemicals, Liu said. The crop-dusting helicopters have not only improved farming efficiency, but also protect farmers from poisonous pesticides.
Along with Anhui, unmanned helicopters have also become popular in farming in the provinces of Hubei, Henan, Hebei, Shandong and Jiangxi since 2012, according to Zhou Liru, chairman of Bozhou City Traffic Intelligence Aviation Plant Protection Technology Co., Ltd., where the helicopters were produced.
Liu said the cost of using the helicopters is no more than that of employing locals. Farmers may use helicopters from their village agricultural cooperatives if they provide the pesticides and pay eight yuan (1.3 U.S. dollars) per mu of cropland.
As a growing number of villagers find jobs in big cities, more and more rural elderly and women have stayed at home to shoulder the responsibilities of farming, and mechanized farming has really helped these groups, Liu said.
China has vowed efforts to raise its farming mechanization rate to more than 61 percent in 2014, according to Vice Minister of Agriculture Zhang Taolin at a work conference in February.
The country will step up the implementation of subsidy policies for farm machine purchases and push forward mechanization in the production of major crops this year, according to the ministry.
China's farming mechanization rate reached 59 percent in 2013, up 2 percentage points from the previous year.
sources:[http://en.twwtn.com/Information/22_66104.html]
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