The biplane is back! Bizarre dual winged design combines plane and helicopter - and could mean personal jets that can land anyway
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It is the private plane that could land and take off from anywhere.
With its square wing, it may look uncannily like a biplane - but in fact this in a combined plane and tilt rotor helicopter.
Called the Elytron, it could change the way private planes operate - and even allow airlines to fly directly into the heart of cities.
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The Elytron 2S can take off and land like a helicopter but fly with fixed wings like a plane
HOW IT WORKS
The Elytron design combines three sets of wings: one pair of rotary wings called 'proprotors"', mounted on a single tilt-wing in central position, and two pairs of fixed wings.
The fixed wings are split into a forward pair and an aft pair that are joined by winglets, which make use of the joined-wing concept.
By splitting the wings apart, the design eliminates any interference with the thrust of the proprotor.
'The Elytron family of aircraft is designed to provide the vertical take-off and landing capability of helicopters combined with the speed and efficiency advantages of fixed wing aircraft,' the firm says.
'Elytron's solution provides greater safety, speed, and simplicity of operation over any existing class of vertical take-off aircraft which makes it ideally suited for various uses, such as emergency medical services, search and rescue, air taxi, and oil exploration.'
'The combination of the speed of a fixed wing plane and the vertical take-off of a helicopter will allow for applications such as air taxi from city center to city center.'
The Elytron design combines three sets of wings: one pair of rotary wings called 'proprotors', mounted on a single tilt-wing in central position, and two pairs of fixed wings.
The fixed wings are split into a forward pair and an aft pair that are joined by winglets, which make use of the joined-wing concept.
The plane could fly directly into city centres and land on a heliport pad
To land, the rotors flight mid flight and the plane turns into a helicopter
By splitting the wings apart, the design eliminates any interference with the thrust of the proprotors.
'Because the proprotors are tilted forward during normal flight, the Elytron design does not suffer the performance penalty that helicopters do with the retreating blade,' the firm says.
'Therefore, Elytron aircraft will be capable of achieving airspeeds two to three times those of equivalently powered helicopters.'
Elytron has built a 2-seater demonstrator aircraft which serves as a technology showcase.
The next step for Elytron is to start commercial applications which include a 7-seater class of aircraft able to support applications, such as emergency medical services.
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