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NASA Puffin (concept design)

NASA Puffin one passenger eVTOL tail-sitting concept design aircraft

(Image credit: NASA Langley)

Puffin (concept design)
NASA Langley
Hampton, Virginia, USA
www.nasa.gov/langley

Established in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research and space research. NASA is headquartered in Washington, D.C. and has 10 major field centers. NASA has made space ships, explored space, the moon, launched satellites, gathered data about Earth from space, made the Skylab Space Station, explored Mars, studied our solar system using space probes and more. (Image credit: NASA)

NASA's Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) research
NASA started researching distributed electric propulsion (DEP) on electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) and hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft in 2009. DEP was introduced to the world in November 2009 when Mark Moore, while still at NASA, unveiled the Puffin, a personal an all-battery eVTOL concept design aircraft. For the first time, the world caught a glimpse at how electric propulsion might transform everyday flight. In 2010, according to one website, the first eVTOL aircraft flown was NASA's Puffin subscale eVTOL tail-sitter aircraft.

In 2014, NASA built both eVTOL and fixed-wing DEP technology demonstrator aircraft. Some of the key design features for NASA's advanced air mobility (AAM) common reference models is to increase safety exponentially, reduce the complexity of the aircraft, decrease the cost of manufacturing, minimize maintenance costs, lower the final ticket cost to the consumer, lessen or have no carbon footprint for the aircraft and decrease the noise level for the general public.

NASA Ames Research Center, NASA Langley and Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory eVTOL contributions
All electric common reference models (eCRM) designs came from the NASA Ames Research Center. The Greased Lightning drone, the LA-8 testbed, the Puffin (concept design and subscale prototype), the Raven (Research Aircraft for eVTOL Enabling Technologies) concept design and the Raven-Swft (Subscale Wind-Tunnel and Flight Test model) subscale technology demonstrator were designed and built in NASA Langley. The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) is the primary facility responsible for designing and building the Dragonfly eVTOL space probe.

Mark Moore statement on Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP)
Mark Moore, Co-Founder and CEO of Whisper Aero (formerly a Principal Investigator and Chief Technologist for On-Demand Mobility, NASA and Engineering Director of Aviation, Uber Elevate) at the Vertical Flight Society's 7th Annual Electric VTOL Symposium, Jan. 21-23, 2020 in San Jose, California, USA, stated concerning distributed electric propulsion, "There has not been this pace in aeronautics since the Wright Brothers."

NASA’s Puffin is a one passenger eVTOL tail-sitter aircraft (concept design)
The NASA Puffin is a one person eVTOL tail-sitting concept design aircraft. A subscale proof-of-concept prototype was made and flown but a full-scale Puffin prototype was never manufactured. NASA announced the design in November 2009, and the first scaled prototype took flight in February 2010. The prototype provided data to NASA for this research project and future projects.

NASA researcher Mark Moore created the concept design vehicle as part of earning his doctoral degree. He and a team from Georgia Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, National Institute of Aerospace and M-DOT Aerospace. The Puffin was discussed at the American Helicopter Society conference on Aeromechanics in January 2010.

The vehicle earned its name because a puffin looks very awkward with wings that appear too small to fly. However, the Puffin bird flies up to 55 mph (88.5 km/h) and can flap its wings up to 400 times a minute. It is also called “the most environmentally friendly bird” because it keeps its waste separate from its living quarters (or hides its waste, if you will) which parallels the NASA Puffin’s near zero emissions.

The aircraft has a expected cruise speed of 150 mph (241 km/h) and has a foreseen maximum speed of 300 mph (483 km/h). The estimated range of the aircraft is 50 miles (80 km) and has an calculated maximum altitude of 30,000 ft (9,144 m). The Puffin has four propellers, has two 60 horsepower electric motors and is powered by batteries. The propellers are positioned near the ends of its gull wing. The empty weight of the aircraft is intended to be 400 lb (181 kg), with a projected maximum payload weight is 200 lb (91 kg) and has a targeted maximum takeoff weight of 600 lb (272 kg).

The tail-sitter aircraft has a canopy over the cockpit providing excellent views for the pilot, has one high main gull wing with two ventral fins and has a rear X-tail that expands outward when landing (or stays expanded when parked). The fuselage is made from carbon fiber composite for a high strength to low weight ratio. The aircraft stands 12 feet (3.7 meters) tall (or long in flight mode) with a wingspan of 14.5 feet (4.4 meters). The landing gear consists of two fixed wheels at the rear of the fuselage and has a small sphere at the end of each X-tail boom.

Some of NASA's other early eVTOL projects include the NASA LA-8 eVTOL Testbed and NASA Greased Lightning.

NASA Puffin in flight, front view (Image credit: NASA)

NASA Puffin in flight, front view (Image credit: NASA)

NASA Puffin parked on a vertiport (Image credit: NASA)

NASA Puffin parked on a vertiport (Image credit: NASA)

NASA Puffin multiple views (Image credit: NASA)

NASA Puffin multiple views (Image credit: NASA)

Specifications:

  • Aircraft type: Passenger eVTOL concept design
  • Piloting: 1 pilot (no passengers)
  • Cruise speed: 150 mph (241 km)
  • Maximum speed: 300 mph (483 km/h)
  • Range, with a maximum payload: 50 m (80 km)
  • Maximum altitude: 30,000 ft (9,144 m)
  • Empty weight (witout batteries): 300 lb (136 kg)
  • Empty weight (with batteries): 400 lb (181 kg)
  • Maximum payload weight: 200 lb (91 kg)
  • Maximum takeoff weight: 600 lb (272 kg)
  • Propellers: 4 propellers
  • Rotor Diameter: 7.5 ft (2.2 m)
  • Electric motors: 2 X 60-horsepower electric motors
  • Power source: Batteries
  • Battery weight: 100 lb (45 kg)
  • Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
  • Height: 12 ft (3.7 m)
  • Wingspan: 14.5 ft (4.4 m)
  • Windows: Front bubble window
  • Wings: 1 high main gull wing with two ventral fins at 90 degree angles to the wing
  • Tail: X-tail. The X-tail expands for landing or when parked.
  • Landing gear: Tail sitter, two wheels at the end of the fuselage and four landing spheres at the end of the X-tail
  • Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP) means having multiple propellers (or electric ducted fans) and multiple electric motors on an aircraft so if one or more propellers (or electric ducted fans) or some electric motors fail, the other working propellers (or electric ducted fans) and electric motors can safely land the aircraft. DEP provides safety through redundancy for passengers or cargo. There are also redundancies of critical components in the sub-systems of the aircraft providing safety through redundancy. Having multiple redundant systems on any aircraft decreases having any single point of failure.

Related Aircraft:

Company Insights:

Resources:

 
  Forum 83, The Future of Vertical Flight, May 11-13, 2027, Phoenix, Arizona, USA

  The World eVTOL Aircraft Directory with 1,200+ aircraft cataloged!

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