Trek Aerospace Dragonfly (prototype)

Trek Aerospace Dragonfly one passenger VTOL aircraft

(Photo credit: Trek Aerospace)

Dragonfly™ (prototype)
Trek Aerospace, Inc.
Folsom, California, USA
www.trekaero.com

Trek Aerospace, Inc. is a small engineering company based in Folsom, California, USA. Founded on March 18, 1996 as “Millennium Jet, Inc.”, the company changed their name to Trek Aerospace on July 3, 2002 because people thought the company was building jets. To clarify, SoloTrek was a name for certain models of Trek Aerospace's aircraft. SoloTrek was never the name of the company. The company is dedicated to understanding and improving shrouded propeller performance and efficiency. In the process, they developed their own proprietary CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software, TASPA (Trek Aerospace Shrouded Propeller Analysis).

The company has stated all of their aircraft designs are very flexible when it comes to scalability, electric motors used, propeller types and the type of power source used. That is, all previous conventionally powered aircraft the company has created can be converted to eVTOL aircraft and can be updated with the latest in avionics, electronics, propellers and electric (all batteries or hybrid-electric) power sources. All of the company's aircraft have been designed for advanced air mobility (AAM).

The company has designed and made multiple vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft including its exoskeleton backpack "helicopters" using shrouded propellers in the airframe design. Some articles refer to the exoskeleton backpack helicopter as a jetpack, even though there are no jet engines involved in the backpack aircraft. The company has also designed and made watercraft. Trek Aerospace also assists and teams with other companies, large and small, in the design, fabrication, and licensing of projects involving shrouded propellers and/or autonomous control systems. For example, Trek Aerospace built XTI Aircraft Company's TriFan subscale proof of concept (POC) aircraft.

Trek Aerospace Shrouded Propeller Analysis
Testing at NASA and university wind tunnels has validated the accuracy of the Trek Aerospace Shrouded Propeller Analysis (TASPA). Flight testing of both crewed and uncrewed vehicles has further verified the real-world applications of Trek’s technology. The company states their core technology has the highest specific thrust (lb/kW) in the industry. Aircraft designed by Trek define the efficiency curve used in the UBER Elevate white paper.

This efficiency allows aircraft to carry more weight in a smaller footprint. According to the company, their shrouded propellers require less power, use fewer batteries, have a greater payload and have a farther range than other battery powered aircraft. Furthermore, the company states their shrouded propellers have outperformed similar free propellers to airspeeds in excess of 230 mph (371 km/h), negating much of the drag penalty associated with ducted propellers.

Dragonfly one passenger VTOL multicopter prototype aircraft
The VTOL Dragonfly™ one passenger VTOL aircraft began development in 2004 with multiple missions in mind for the aircraft, including passenger and air cargo missions. Dragonfly™ UMR-1 is based on the research done with DARPA and NASA on the Springtail™ EFV and was originally designed as an uncrewed air cargo aircraft with over 41 cubic feet of capacity. In addition, the plan was always to have the aircraft flown with either a pilot or remotely. Even though the original aircraft was a VTOL aircraft with gears and shafts turning the propellers, the company can easily reconfigure the aircraft to be a hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft or an all-electric VTOL aircraft.

The maximum speed of the aircraft 235 mph (378 km/h), with a range of over 575 miles (Over 925 km) with a maximum altitude: 12,900 ft (3,900 m). The aircraft has two main ducted fans for all modes of flight with a canopy over the cockpit, rear tilted downward stub wings and has fixed skid type landing gear. The powered-lift VTOL configuration makes this vehicle extremely maneuverable and agile. With its small footprint, the aircraft can park easily at a small vertiport, driveway, parking lot space, on a lawn or in a field. The aircraft can be easily stored on a ship or in a standard sized garage.

If the aircraft is ever put in service, the company foresees the aircraft for air taxi service, personal air transportation, tourism, agriculture, livestock management, surveillance missions, geophysical surveying, security missions, police work, fire fighting, emergency medical service, government work, military missions and more.

While the company has not stated this aircraft will be reinstated into the emerging eVTOL industry, it has the option to do so.

Specifications:

Aircraft type: Conventional passenger VTOL prototype aircraft (Can be converted to an all electric VTOL or hybrid-electric VTOL aircraft)
Piloting: 1 pilot, passenger or patient
Maximum speed: 235 mph (378 km/h)
Range: Over 575 miles (Over 925 km)
Maximum altitude: 12,900 ft (3,900 m)
Empty weight: 490 lb (222 kg)
Maximum payload: 450 lb (204 kg)
Maximum takeoff weight: 1,070 lb (485 kg)
Propellers: 2 ducted fans
Electric Motors: 2 electric motors
Power source: Conventional, all batteries or a hybrid-electric power source
Fuselage: Future versions, carbon fiber composite
Windows: Canopy over cockpit
Wings: Rear stub downward tilted wings
Landing gear: Fixed skid landing gear (the prototype has fixed quadricycle wheels to make it ease to move on the ground. The final version could have fixed skid landing gear or wheeled landing gear.)
Safety features: There are redundancies of critical components in the sub-systems of the aircraft providing safety through redundancy.