The COMPOUND HELI-jet Design
The COMPOUND HELI-JET is a totally new type of aircraft for which we are seeking funds for further development. This design is protected by patent #7,275,711. The aircraft, named Colibrí I by us, is a 4 to 5 place, VTOL, very fast, and amazingly safe aircraft.
Our core management group has done a great deal of preparation toward designing and building the next generation vertical takeoff aircraft. After we did our scheming and plotting of the initial concept, Mr. Flanigan was asked to build a quarter-scale model of the rotor/rotor head, and drive mechanism he perceived. Following the success of building and testing the model (the same model as previously mentioned), we hired AirBoss Aerospace, aerouatical engineers and design consultants, to do a Preliminary Design Review of our concept. This took us from the “backyard” conceptual stage to the credible, “yes, we have a viable product” stage. AirBoss has taken many of today’s aircraft from the conceptual stage through to the production and flight-testing stage. They are a very credible outfit, and their PDR gave our project the much-needed authentication and validation it needed.
We must now match men, machines, management and marketing with money to begin the actual detailed design of the craft whose features are outlined below.
It’s no secret; Advanced Aerospace Technologies is a brand new company and needs a financial kick in the pants to get started. One good way to accomplish this would be to collaborate with NextGen Aeronautics in the writing of a White Paper for DARPA. We have the platforms (the aircraft); NextGen has the state-of-the-art rotor technology that would put a UAV Technology Demonstrator over the top.
We could go either way; while AirBoss Aerospace doesn’t see any “show stoppers” for the COMPOUND HELI-jet, it does need additional R & D in developing the rotor technology. The other way we could go is to lead with the already patented TIP-jet TILT-ROTOR, which does not need additional R & D—or at the max, very, very little.
A UAV Technology Demonstrator is a very good way to go for us, as it will be far less expensive than building a full-blown piloted demonstrator for a number of reasons including size, and the lack of need for a fully instrumented cockpit, creature comforts, and extensive FAA safety requirements including much redundancy and component failure testing.
While DARPA would be a good way to ‘boot-strap’ our way into financing our R & D, an angel would still be welcome. (There is more than enough here for everybody.) Other events may also enter into this: Licensing the present TIP-jet TILT-ROTOR technology may well occur first. If that happens, we will fall back into the ‘boot-strapping’ position. At any rate, we believe a UAV Technology Demonstrator is the way to go.