Bartini (production aircraft)
Bartini (production aircraft)
Bartini Aero, Inc.
Cupertino, California, USA
www.bartini.aero
In 2015, Ilya Khanykov, CEO, founded Bartini Aero, Inc. in Moscow, Russia. The company's goal is to design and manufacture a comfortable and highly maneuverable hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) passenger for advanced air mobility (AAM). The company plans to construct manufacturing plants in markets that are in demand of their aircraft. Components for the aircraft will be made by both Bartini Aero and will also purchase components from other suppliers from around the world.
The team of more than 40 people includes specialists in aeronautics, aviation engineering, airspace integration, manufacturing, and urban planning. The company is also in collaboration with Italdesign (Turin, Italy) for industrial design and manufacturing.
Bartini Aero unveiled its hybrid-electric VTOL passenger concept design in July 2017. The company's first slogan was “Weird to think of in 1985. Easy to hop on in 2020.” Vladimir Salatov, CTO, stated he was inspired by the movie, Back to the Future, for the Bartini Aero aircraft project. (The founding date of the company is from Bartini's LinkedIn's web page.)
The company is named after the Soviet aircraft designer Robert Ludvigovich Bartini who was pioneer of amphibious aircraft and ground effect vehicles. Bartini was one of the most famous engineers in the Soviet Union. According to one website, the "Bartini Effect" is the increase in thrust created by mounting co-axial counter-rotating thrusters within a nacelle. The company's aircraft is frequently called the Bartini Flying Car.
The Bartini Flying Car is a very futuristic four passenger VTOL tilting-multicopter aircraft for advanced air mobility (AAM) that has the option of being powered by hydrogen cells or using battery packs. The aircraft will be piloted at the start of air taxi service and will eventually be flown autonomously when autonomous flying technology has matured. When piloted, there will be one pilot and three passengers. The pilot will fly the aircraft using a joystick. The aircraft has four rotating ducts and each duct has two counter-rotating variable-pitch propellers inside each duct.
When powered with hydrogen fuel cells the estimated cruise speed of the aircraft is 186 mph (300 km/h), a range of 342 miles (550 km) and has a flight time of two hours. When powered with lithium batteries, the cruise speed is 186 mph (300 km/h), a range of 93 miles (150 km) and has a flight time of 30 minutes. The company expects the aircraft to allow passengers to cross most cities in the world in about 15 minutes.
The company has stated that ducted fans provide an additional 30% thrust, provides higher thrust, lower drag, and increases the physical safety of passengers and ground crew, and lowers the noise of the aircraft. The propellers work independently of each other and the tilting ducts work independently of each other. The front ducts are attached to the lower portion on the side of the fuselage and the rear ducts are attached to the upper portion on the side of the rear of the fuselage.
The fuselage has the approximate shape of a cuttlefish bone providing a spacious interior with elbow room on the sides of each seat. The company was concerned with the east of enter and exit of the aircraft and Bartini held an impromptu think-tank to design the doors from participants from an industrial design competition (June 27-29, 2017) held at the Skolkovo Innovation Center (Moscow, Russia). The participants designed gull-wing doors.
There are wrap around continuous windows providing the pilot and passengers with excellent views. The interior windows will provide information concerning the trip and the land below the aircraft. A highly stylized structural vertical beam is located on the interior of each side of the fuselage.
The interior was designed with a luxury car-like design. There are four bucket seats with 2X2 seating, each seat has two arm rests and there is a central console between the seats. The central console has cup holders, storage, air conditioning controls and other electronic controls. A large flat screen is in the front of the passenger compartment and there are flat screens on the back of the two front seats.
The aircraft is capable of using hydrogen fuel cells for a power source for longer ranges or battery packs which will have a limited range. The company acknowledges that in the future as battery density becomes greater, the owner of the aircraft will be able to switch to all battery packs and charge them with solar panels allowing a very sustainable way of flying in urban or rural areas or both.
The safety features include multiple redundant systems and the aircraft will detect other aircraft and avoid them and also fly around prohibited areas. The company acknowledges that in the future as battery density becomes greater, the owner of the aircraft will be able to switch to all battery packs and charge them with solar panels allowing a very sustainable way of flying in urban or rural areas or both. The aircraft has quadricycle retractable wheeled landing gear.
The company expects their aircraft to be purchased by air taxi companies and be used for advanced air mobility around the world. The company will also sell their aircraft for personal use.
Specifications:
- Aircraft type: eVTOL or hybrid-electric VTOL passenger aircraft
- Piloting: To be piloted at first and then in the future, autonomous piloting
- Capacity: 4 passengers (including the pilot)
- Cruise speed: 186 mph (300 km/h)
- Range with batteries: 93 m (150 km)
- Range hydrogen fuel cells: 342 m (550 km)
- Flight time with battery packs: 30 minutes
- Flight time with hydrogen fuel cells: 2 hours
- Cruise altitude: 3,281 ft (1,000 m)
- Empty weight: 2,425 lb (700 kg)
- Maximum payload: 882 lb (400 kg)
- Maximum takeoff weight: 3,307 lb (1,100 kg)
- Ducts: 4 tilting-ducts
- Propellers: 8 ducted propellers
- Electric Motors: 8 electric motors
- Power source: Lithium batteries or hydrogen fuel cells
- Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
- Width: 18 ft (5.5 m)
- Length: 18 ft (5.5 m)
- Height: 5.6 ft (1.7 m)
- Windows: Panoramic wrap around windows allowing forward, left, right for spectacular views with a solid roof above the passenger compartment
- Landing gear: Quadricycle retractable wheeled landing gear
- Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers (or ducted fans) and motors on the aircraft so if one or more propellers (ducted fans) or motors fail, the other working propellers (or ducted fans) and motors can safely land the aircraft. There are also redundancies in the sub-systems of the aircraft.
Company Insights:
Resources:
- Bartini Aero website
- Bartini Aero Facebook
- Bartini Aero Twitter
- Bartini Aero LinkedIn
- Patent application Dec. 4, 2014, granted July 20, 2016
- Article: Flying cars ready to take to Moscow’s skies, Skolkovo, Aug. 3, 2017
- Video: Bartini Scaled Functional Prototype, McFly.aero, May 5, 2018
- Video: Bartini: From Vision to Prototype, McFly.aero, Aug. 20, 2018
- Article: Russian air taxi prototype passes flight tests, Aerospace Testing International, Oct. 30, 2018
- Article: Prototype of a ‘flying taxi of the future’ assembled at NUST MISiS, Vertical Magazine, Nov. 13, 2018
- Article: Russian tech startup showcases flying taxi prototype in demonstration flight, EFE, Dec. 7, 2018
- Article: Bartini’s Ilya Khanykov talks flying cars and collaborating with competitors, Finn, Jan. 23, 2019
- Video: Interview with Ilya Khanykov Bartini, We Are FINN, Jan. 23, 2019
- Article: Russia’s Bartini “successfully flight tests prototype urban air taxi”, Urban Air Mobility News, May 7, 2019
- Article: The Bartini eVTOL Passenger Aircraft – From Vision to Prototype, SIA Magazine, June 14, 2019
- Article: Escaping The Traffic, Auto & Design, March 2020
