NASA’s Puffin, Electric VTOL Personal Air Vehicle
Posted By: Whollys Staff on January 21st, 2010 Filed Under: Design, Technology, Vehicles
Nasa’s ‘Puffin’, a one man air vehicle almost have some characteristics that fits that of a spacecraft. Well not like a spacecraft, but it has some major speed to it. The machine has been said it can cruise at 150 miles per hour and sprint at more like 300 miles per hour!
“Conceptual design focusing on the ability of a redundant electric propulsion system to provide new capabilities for Vertical Takeoff and Landing aircraft. Specifically utilizing electric motor variable rpm to accomplish a low tipspeed prop-rotor (400 ft/sec tip speed at hover and 200 ft/sec at cruise) to accomplish an order of magnitude reduction in community noise for close proximity operations (30-40 db reduction). The variable rpm capability also achieves a 25% improvement in prop-rotor efficiency through operation at optimal advance ratios.”
