Edea 22/1 Jay

Edea 22/1 Jay
Edea
Thüringen, Vorarlberg, Austria
www.edea.at

Simon Etlinger is an Austrian inventor who has participated in Phase I, Phase II and Phase III of Boeing’s GoFly Prize contest. He completed the Phase I GoFly Prize competition with this aircraft. The inventor is looking for financial backers to bring his Urban Air Mobility VTOL aircraft to market for serial production.

The Edea 22/1 Jay is a hybrid-electric vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) concept small passenger aircraft with a very sleek and modern design, able to takeoff and land in driveways or on landing pads.

His first sketches of this aircraft were made as early as December 2015. The aircraft, if ever manufactured, would take advantage of extremely efficient electric motors to turn the propellers for vertical and forward flight. A turbine engine would power a generator to make the electricity for all the electrical systems on the aircraft.

Etlinger designed the concept VTOL aircraft using a turbine engine to run the aircraft because battery density technology has not caught up at this time to the power output of a turbine engine. However, Etlinger has told the Vertical Flight Society, that the aircraft could easily be converted to using batteries as its main power source, as soon as high density batteries (such as solid state batteries) become available.

The aircraft is a two seat aircraft and is similar in size to a standard small two passenger piston general aviation airplane. A big advantage of the Edea 22/1 Jay VTOL aircraft is that it uses its wings to extend the flying range of the aircraft, yet can takeoff and land like a helicopter. The estimated aircraft cruise speed would be greater than 204 km/h (127 mph) and fly at the required low altitude for urban air mobility (UAM). If using the aircraft for longer flights, the maximum altitude would be 4,000 m (13,123 ft) or possibly slightly higher.

The aircraft's fixed wheeled landing gear allows for easy ground handling and rolling takeoff and landing, if the crew decided this was needed. The main wings have no ailerons but the rear inverted U tail has both ailerons and elevators to help control the aircraft.

This is a concept aircraft and no sub-scale or full scale prototypes were made to test the airworthiness of the aircraft. The Edea 22/1 Jay was entered into Phase I of the Boeing’s GoFly Prize contest. For Phase II, the Edea 22/2 Squid was entered. For Phase III of the contest, Etlinger entered the Edea 22/3 Kamino aircraft. All three Edea GoFly Prize contest entries have been completely different VTOL aircraft designs.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Concept hybrid-electric VTOL or eVTOL when battery technology becomes better.
• Passengers: 2 passenger
• Cruise speed: Greater than 204 km/h (127 mph)
• Cruise altitude: For urban air mobility, a low altitude
• Maximum altitude: In the range of 4,000 m (13,123 ft)
• Propellers: 3 shrouded propellers in the wings and fuselage
• Forward flight: Rear propeller tilts 90° for forward flight and main wing lifting rotors can also tilt forward
• Electric motors: 6 motors (2 electric motors per ducted fan)
• Power source: Gas turbine
• Empty weight: 550 kg
• Wings: High main seagull wings provide slow speed forward flight and do not have any ailerons, elevators or flaps.
• Tail: The tail is an inverted U tail which has front ailerons and rear elevators.
• Landing gear: Tricycle fixed wheeled landing gear
• Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers and motors on the aircraft so if one or more motors or propellers fail, the other working motors and propellers can safely land the aircraft. Redundancy is also built into this aircraft when two pilots are flying. If one pilot has a medical emergency, the other pilot can still fly the aircraft. Also, in general, when pilots are flying an aircraft, safety increases since two people are problem solving how to fly safely through airspace.

Resources:

• Edea website
• Simon Etlinger LinkedIn