Russia has created a new aircraft – vertical takeoff, speed 270 km / h
As RIA Novosti reports with reference to a representative of the Ecolibri development company, in Russia there are often works on one of the first cases of increasing the height of lift and landing.
At the enterprise allocatedthat the first stage of development, submitted in accordance with applicable aviation regulations, has already been completed, the systems are being bench tested. Ecolibri says that the aircraft “will explore an aircraft equipped with a hybrid propulsion system” and “vertical landings and landings will be provided using an engine of its own design.”
The company’s press service suggested that the aircraft in the field of passenger transportation is disappearing, a niche previously assigned to helicopters, but at the same time it “will not have a complex mechanism such as a swashplate or gearbox, which allows to reduce the cost.”
They said that the aircraft will receive modern domestic avionics and will be made mainly from common components in our country. “As a result, it was more efficient than a helicopter in some applications – also in the plant. “This applies, in particular, to the duration of routes, since due to the large area of the globe, such high aerodynamic characteristics can be taken into account.”
Head of the scientific and technical council of Ecolibri, former head of the Il company Alexey Rogozin said that the flight range of this one will be 1.2 thousand km, and the speed will be approximately 270 km / h. He focused on the fact that “the aircraft and the charge of initiating a criminal case are strictly in accordance with the requirements of aviation legislation, which probably requires its confirmation and real suspicion in relation to special cases.”
It is worth remembering that in the Soviet Union this kind of aircraft was created exclusively for defense needs – for example, the Yak-36 carrier-based attack aircraft, various variants of the Yak-38, as well as the Yak-41, which operated according to a number of characteristics of its time, but it was destined for a short life – the “reforms” that broke out in the country brought down the project and it was closed in 1992.
Director of the agency “AviaPort” Oleg Panteleev international aviation industry and landing in our country. n. “urban air mobility”.
– Huge metropolitan areas, choking in traffic jams, require the transfer of transport routes, so to speak, to a different plane. In other words, it is planned to master the airspace over cities, which can greatly simplify the work of various special services (in the field of medicine, law enforcement, fire fighting).
According to the materials containing such solutions, a two-hour reaction to a car in the center of a big city can be replaced by a 20-minute flight in practice in a vehicle.
“SP”: – The difference is significant.
– These are, of course, inaccurate estimates, but a certain scale that gives an idea of how much travel time can be reduced. In this case, the requirements for this type of aircraft should be observed. The city does not have the opportunity to equip full-fledged runways, increased safety requirements are imposed, environmental standards are assumed (in terms of emissions of harmful substances and noise levels).
“SP”: – Rarely such flights were available to residents of large cities?
— Of course, any super project, no matter how technologically advanced, will take off only if the cost of passenger transportation is competitive among other modes of transport. All urban mobility solutions offered today use an electric airmobile or hybrid propulsion system; mechanisms involving vertical or extremely shortened rise and landing; various constructive solutions – be it multi-rotor systems
“SP”: – Are there any features for the implementation of such projects in our country?
— We are not too different from the whole world: Moscow is one of the largest European cities, St. Petersburg is also a very large city, so we need such solutions. There is a feature that distinguishes our capital from others – it is a cold and snowy winter. This should be accepted during development.
“SP”: – Is this project practically feasible and feasible?
– We can say that the development of basic technologies is at a fairly serious stage, which allows us to fly an aircraft. In our country as a whole, there are certain processes for electric motors, power sources, and control systems.
“SP”: – What kind are present here?
– shortcomings of the normative-legal and part of law enforcement, as well as some others. Despite the fact that the technological level can be very advanced, other points do not allow us to say that we will see the implementation of these ideas in the near future.
“SP”: – According to the takeoff speed of a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, it seems like reviews with helicopters. It happened a few years ago when we in the country announced the development of the helicopter industry and the development of helicopter transportation. Does this mean that instead of helicopters, people are returning to “transfer” to planes?
— This, of course, is not true. Each dimension of the aircraft has its own layout schemes. Traditionally, a helicopter is an aircraft for one of the three or four most common such schemes – classical, coaxial, longitudinal and transverse, and so on. For VTOL aircraft that may have a relatively high cruising speed, both repetitive patterns and new patterns may be used.
And it is still difficult to say which scheme is most suitable for the required characteristics, aviation science has yet to figure it out. So far, we can say that the development of technologies here will follow the recipe “call it a pot, just don’t put it in the oven.” That is, we do not know exactly how these aircraft will be called.
It is important for us that it meets the requirements, and the cost of a flight hour is lower than that of helicopters. At the same time, there are a number of large-scale areas – perhaps the development of the Arctic shelf – where the replacement of helicopters at the current level of technological development is not yet foreseen.