Hover Formula Subscale Prototype

Formula Subscale Prototype
Hover
Moscow, Central Federal District, Russia
www.hoversurf.com

Hover was founded in Moscow, Russia, in January 2014 by inventor, tech entrepreneur and businessman Alexander Atamanov. Atamanov holds bachelor’s degrees in engineering and law as well as a masters degree in the management of innovation processes. He has founded and sold several companies before founding Hover and holds numerous patents relating to the various products and services that he has successfully brought to the marketplace. Hoversurf was the company's original name.

It has been reported that some of the investors in the company include Qiwi, the Starta Ventures, Ismail Akhmetov, Nikolai Belykh, Evgeny Medvednikov, Maxim Korobov and possibly other Russian investors. In 2018, the company moved its Moscow headquarters to Burlingame, California but in 2019, Hover moved their headquarters back to Moscow.

Hover, formerly Hoversurf, designed ⅒ subscale electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) prototype to validate their full-sized two passenger Formula eVTOL aircraft. The aircraft could be described as a large black drone (no passengers), controlled by remote control and lands on the belly of the aircraft. The aircraft has four ducted fans for VTOL flight and uses two ducted fans for forward flight. The fans for forward flight also provide thrust for reverse flight and also help with lateral control, turning the aircraft left and right.

A very important piece of the puzzle is to create efficient and low noise electric ducted fans (EDF) for the aircraft's propulsion. Hover has conceded that a basic EDF has the inherent problems of low efficiency and creates more noise than is desirable. The company wanted to solve this problem.

Hover discovered by adding multiple air intakes near the exhaust area of the ducted fan, to allow air to passively enter towards the rear of the nacelle, the ducted fan will generate more thrust, be more efficient and automatically reduce noise. The company calls their proprietary ducted fans, Venturi engines.

The Venturi engine (they actually use electric motors inside of the nacelle) has two housings, the inner duct work which houses the electric motor and propellers and the outer nacelle. The owner says they are the first eVTOL company to use multiple air intakes near the rear of the nacelle. Atamanov also stated that this type of design feature is also used on jetliner turbofan engines. The rear of the ducted fan also includes chevrons, to help reduce noise even further. Chevrons are now regularly seen on jetliner engines as well, to reduce jet noise. The Venturi electric ducted fans were used on the ⅒ Formula subscale prototype successfully in 2019.

The company plans to build their first production model in 2021 and have government approval to fly them over cities by 2023-2025.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: eVTOL 1:10 subscale prototype
• Piloting: Remote
• Capacity: 0
• Cruise speed: Unknown
• Range: Unknown
• Flight Time: Unknown
• Ducted propellers: 6 ducted fans (4 ducted fans for VTOL flight, 2 ducted fans for forward/reverse/laterial flight)
• Electric Motors: 6 electric motors
• Power source: Batteries
• Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
• Landing gear: Lands on the belly of the fuselage
• 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.

Resources:

• Hover website
• Hover YouTube Channel
• Article: After The Hoversurf Bike Comes The EVTOL Hoversurf Formula, CleanTechnica, Aug. 18, 2019
• Video: Flying car scale model first test flight using Venturi EDF, Hoversurf Official, June 4, 2018
• Video: UAM VLOG by Alex Atamanov - Episode 1, Hoversurf Official, Feb. 12, 2019
• Video: UAM VLOG by Alex Atamanov - Episode 2, Hoversurf Official, Feb. 17, 2019
• Video: About Hoversurf, Hoversurf Official, Nov. 28, 2019 
• Article: Testing of flying taxis started in Moscow, Popular Mechanics Russia, Jan. 19, 2021