Champagne and Ciprian Onyx eVTOL

Champagne and Ciprian Onyx eVTOL
Imaginactive
Charles Champagne (location unknown) and Jorge Ciprian (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
www.yankodesign.com/tag/charles-champagne

In 2019, Charles Champagne and Jorge Ciprian of Imaginactive designed an all electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for Urban Air Mobility (UAB). The designers realized the importance of the reality that eVTOL aircraft is the future of urban and rural personal transportation.

In addition, the designers also know when introducing potentially hundreds of thousands to millions of an entirely new VTOL aircraft to the airspace that either the private sector or governments will need to foot the bill for the infracstructure for these aircraft. The practical side to reducing a massive amoung of money poured into infrastructure is to make an aircraft that easily fits into a standard parking lot. This is what the designers set out to do to make a useable eVTOL aircraft and make it practical as well. The aircraft can easily fit into a standard sized garage as well.

The Onyx eVTOL is a two passenger aircraft made specifically for rural and urban air mobility. The aircraft is rectangular and is about the size of an SUV or pickup truck.

While the designers don't specify this, a way that shopping centers and businesses with parking lots could do is to block off one end of a parking lot and have electric connections for eVTOL aircraft. It would be similar to what Tesla has done by adding charging stations, each year, in parking lots around the world.

The aircraft has excellent views for its passengers due to a very wide canopy over passenger compartment (or cockpit) as passengers sit side-by-side in this aircraft. The canopy opens on a rear hinge allowing ease of entry and exit. To reduce the amount of complexity on this aircraft, the landing gear is of a fixed skid type.

It is unknown if this aircraft will ever be made into a production aircraft but many of its features are very practical for Urban Air Mobility. It is unknown how to contact these designers.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: eVTOL passenger aircraft
• Piloting: Unknown
• Capacity: 2 passengers
• Cruise speed: unknown
• Range: Unknown
• Flight Time: Unknown
• Propellers: 12 ducted propellers
• Electric Motors: 12 electric motors
• Power source: Battery packs
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
• Windows: Wide canopy over cockpit which opens on a rear hinge
• Landing gear: Fixed skid 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. The aircraft possibly has an whole aircraft ballistic parachute.

Resources:

• Jorge Ciprian website
• Article: This car-sized two-seater VTOL can take off and land directly in parking slots, Yanko Design, Jan. 15, 2019
• Article: The Conceptual Onyx VTOL Vehicle Has Space for Two Passengers, Trend Hunter, Jan. 16, 2019
• Article: This car-sized two-seater VTOL can take off and land directly in parking slots, Gadgets F, Jan. 16, 2019