VTOL vehicle with fan blades outside of exhaust flowpath

• Main Author: Murrow, Kurt David
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 10.08.2021
• Subjects: AEROPLANES; AIRCRAFT; ARRANGEMENTS OR MOUNTING OF POWER PLANTS OR PROPULSIONTRANSMISSIONS IN AIRCRAFT; AVIATION; CONVERSION OR DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRIC POWER; COSMONAUTICS; DYNAMO-ELECTRIC MACHINES; ELECTRICITY; EQUIPMENT FOR FITTING IN OR TO AIRCRAFT; FLYING SUITS; GENERATION; HELICOPTERS; PARACHUTES; PERFORMING OPERATIONS; TRANSPORTING

An aircraft defining a vertical direction and a transverse direction. The aircraft may include a fuselage, a wing extending from the fuselage, and a hybrid-electric propulsion system. The hybrid-electric propulsion system may include a power source, a plurality of vertical thrust electric fans arranged along the wing and driven by the power source, and a forward thrust propulsor. The power source may include a combustion engine and an electric generator. The combustion engine may also define a flowpath for exhausting combustion gases. The forward thrust propulsor may be selectively or permanently mechanically coupled to the combustion engine. The forward thrust propulsor may include a propulsor fan having a plurality of fan blades arranged outside of the flowpath of the combustion engine for exhausting combustion gases.