Sttr phase i: integrated high lift propulsor

This $255,843 National Science Foundation project grant under the Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships program will fund research and development of an integrated high lift propulsor to enable affordable and energy-efficient advanced air mobility aircraft designs. Wayfarer Aircraft Research and Development Inc. will conduct wind tunnel experiments and computational fluid dynamics simulations from August 2022 to July 2023 to characterize aerodynamic interactions between a propeller and wing under varying configurations. The research aims to advance understanding of complex slipstream effects on wing performance for applications in defense, public safety, humanitarian missions, and new mobility capabilities. Findings may support development of electric propulsion distributed lift augmentation that combines high-lift capabilities for low-speed flight with low-drag cruise efficiency.

Abstract

The broader impact of this small business technology transfer (sttr) phase i project is to enable the affordable and energy-efficient design of advanced powered lift aircraft, creating aircraft capable of transporting people and things to new locations. The reduction in transport cost and emissions made possible by this project may ensure that the advanced air mobility market, expected to grow to $120 billion by 2030, develops community-compatible, economically- and socially-relevant mobility capabilities. The fundamental aerodynamic technology developed by this project may be applicable to a wide range of aircraft sizes and missions, enabling new capability in defense, public safety, and humanitarian roles as well as improving the quality of life for the public by enabling affordable, advanced mobility and logistics in urban, suburban, and underserved rural areas. The increased efficiency of the technology may enable these benefits to be realized while reducing the environmental impacts. This sttr phase i project seeks to confirm the feasibility of a new method of distributed electric propulsion for lift augmentation that combines high lift for low-speed performance with low drag, cruise-efficient wing design using a novel integrated propulsor. The project will explore the complex and incompletely understood aerodynamic interaction of a propeller and wing, which is key to technical and commercial success. The technical objectives include: characterizing the slipstream influence on the wing pressure distribution and boundary layer characteristics, the influence of variations in propeller and wing configuration and location on high lift performance, and the aircraft level effects and tradeoffs of the configuration. The project seeks to meet these technical objectives with a combination of experimental wind tunnel research and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and analyses to thoroughly understand and characterize the complex flow physics and their impacts on aircraft performance and design. The effort may advance the propeller-wing interaction aerodynamics field. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.