Aliptera ADR-1 Dragon Rider

ADR-1 Dragon Rider
Aliptera
Hamilton, Canada
www.aliptera.com

Aliptera was founded by Dusan Stan and Alexandru Stan in Canada. Their goal is to create both cargo and small personal VTOL aircraft. As of January 2020, they have a cargo VTOL, one passenger VTOL and a two passenger VTOL. While little is stated on their website about the specifications of each aircraft, it seems that all their aircraft can be converted to be either all electric, hybrid-electric or gas powered.

According to the inventor, lip wing technology is a wing which is connected to a movable ducted fan during VTOL flight, allowing the aircraft to lift at zero speed. As the aircraft transitions from VTOL to forward flight, the wing retracts from the ducted fan and the ducted fan moves from a horizontal position to a vertical position. Lip wing technology allows the aircraft to be efficient in both VTOL mode and forward flight, creating a new type of aircraft and thus this type of novel aircraft is suited for Urban Air Mobility (UAM).

The inventors assert:

Planes: 

• Advantages: Most efficient air transportation vehicle to date.
• Disadvantages: Can stall. Stall is a reduction of lift and if not corrected, the airplane can crash. Cannot fly slow. Runways are costly and planes are restricted to taking off and landing on runways.

Helicopters:

• Advantages: Most efficient for a hovering aircraft to date.
• Disadvantages: Are slow, retreating blade stall limits speed and is inefficient air transportation.

Tiltrotors:

• Advantages: Hovers and is faster than helicopters.
• Disadvantages: It’s a compromise between a plane and a helicopter. Less efficient in hover vs a helicopter because of higher disk loading. Less efficient and slower in horizontal flight versus fixed wing aircraft because the bigger propeller creates more drag.

Shrouded propeller or ducted fan:

• Advantages: More efficient at slow speeds, eliminates tip loses and creates more thrust.
• Disadvantages: Can be designed to be efficient at low and high speeds but you can only have it efficient for slow or high speeds, not both.

Channel wing:

• Advantages: More thrust and an open propeller.
• Disadvantages: No control and not efficient at slow speeds, adds vibrations to the aircraft, increases weight of aircraft, thrust increase is not that significant.

Lip wing:

• Advantages: Takes the best of all technologies and is the most efficient design for VTOL aircraft because it creates more lift at low speeds and is able to fly at higher forward speeds without decreasing drag. It provides 65% more lift than an open propeller and 20% more lift than a shrouded propeller.

The ADR-1 Dragon Rider personal electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) one passenger aircraft is where the pilot is in a vertical position for VTOL flight and in the prone position for forward flight. For safety, the pilot will wear a parachute and be strapped into the aircraft. The aircraft will also have its own parachute. The aircraft will also have some type of mesh in front of the propeller to prevent an injury in the event the pilot actually fell on any of the propellers. The VTOL mode for the aircraft will be controlled by a computerized flight controller.

Lip wing technology enables designing of efficient vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, having similar range, speed and fuel economy as small airplanes. The new lip wing aircraft would be ideal for personal use, capable of taking off and landing virtually anywhere, without the need of airports and runways. As the rotor is encased in a duct, it is much safer than open propellers, and generates less noise, and therefore the aircraft can be used in urban environments which is not usually accessible to normal aircraft.

Flight testing has already begun with the company's sub-scale aircraft in addition to ongoing testing of the Aliptera APV-1.

Specifications: 

• Aircraft type: eVTOL, hybrid-electric or gas powered VTOL aircraft
• Passengers: 1 lying in the prone position 
• Propellers: 1 ducted propeller with 3 blades
• Canopy: Has a clear aircraft canopy allowing the pilot see in all directions: Forward, left, right, down and up, allowing the pilot to have spectacular views and the ability to see all around him/her
• Fuselage: Composite
• Wings: Has a canard wing and rear main lip wing. The main lip wing is cylindrical where the wing wraps underneath the fuselage. The main rear lip wing and the rear ducted rear propeller moves its position depending upon whether the aircraft is in vertical or horizontal flight.
• Landing gear: Unknown
• Safety devices: Personal parachute for pilot and aircraft parachute. The ducted propellers will have some type of mesh so the pilot cannot fall into a turning propeller. The aircraft can be landed as a STOL aircraft, in an emergency, as well.

Resources:

• Aliptera website
• Aliptera Facebook
• Aliptera YouTube
• Aliptera LinkedIn   
• Personal Flight Association website
• Paper (for pay): Preliminary Analysis of the Lip Wing System for the ALIPTERA VTOL Concept Aircraft, Vertical Flight Society, 2015
• Video: Experiments and Concept Compilation, 2019, Aliptera - Lip Wing Aircraft, Dec. 7, 2019