CAPSTONE

The National Research Council of Canada (NRCC) requires a scaled-down functioning prototype of an Urban Air Mobility (UAM) vehicle that will allow for the transport of goods in an urban environment. The context of this project exists where consumer aviation is mostly restricted to modes such as helicopters, single-engine civil utility aircraft, and large commercial and business aircraft. These modes of air transport are not accessible in their current state to the average consumer due to the high costs and manpower required to maintain them. Additionally, the stated modes of air transport are utilized for domestic and international travel. Most air travel takes place over large distances due to the infrastructure required for refueling, maintenance, and inspection of aircrafts so it only makes sense to have flights that occur over a sufficiently large distance. The UAM would also be able to focus on delivering goods to people in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA), giving people quicker access to these goods than normal transportation means, which is especially useful for use as an emergency disaster vehicle for relief efforts.

The intention of this capstone design project is to extend NRCC’s research on UAMs and proof of design concept is shown through testing and prototyping. The NRCC will not mass produce the design in the case of a proof of design since the real-world design of a UAM will require extensive infrastructure design, telecommunication, compliance to air transport laws in each urban city, mass manufacturing, aerodynamic design, and more which is outside the scope of this project. Based on the mission of NRCC to make the Canadian industry more competitive, the aim for this design is to improve the feasibility of UAM design compared to the existing designs as well as lay the groundwork for production models. The client’s expectations are focused on research, design, and prototyping.

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There were 4 styles of candidate designs drafted. Each of the candidate designs aims to provide a unique solution that addresses the core components of the aircraft including the propulsion system, VTOL capability, and horizontal flight.

Design 1 - Quadcopter

The quadcopter design uses 4 motors that generate vertical lift for a VTOL, and changing the thrust generated per motor allows for the roll, pitch, and yaw to be coupled to the x, y, and z velocity.

Design 2 - Jet

The Jet based design uses a combustion system to generate hot gas thrust as the propulsion system. The jet-based design has the jets on pivots to provide a VTOL similar to a harrier jet that can also turn to allow for horizontal flight with a passive lift generation device.

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Design 3 - Tilt Rotor

The tilt-rotor design created above utilizes 6 independent tiltable rotors and 2 sets of wings. This would allow the UAM to have the capabilities for thrust vectoring and ground taxiing. However, with the orientation of the wings, the UAM may be unstable when in a Drone state. The orientation of the wings during this flight state will also affect drag forces.

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Design 4 - Tilt-wing

The tilt wing-based design uses propellers attached to a wing that is able to tilt through 120 degrees. When the wing is tilted to be perpendicular to the ground this allows for the aircraft to VTOL, and in-flight the wing is able to be tilted to be parallel to the ground such that flight is achieved with a passive lift device (the wing). LTV XC-142 and Dofour’s aEro2 are examples of existing tilt-wing aircraft.  

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After a weighted decision matrix, the tilt-wing design was chosen.

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