En konceptstudie av TF-X

Abstract: Cars have been used frequently for over a hundred years now, and there’s been a fantasy for a long time about flying cars in the future. Airborne travel gives the freedom of three dimensions and all the benefits that comes with it. There’s straighter paths, ability to travel faster and it can be the source of fantastic views. TF-X is a concept developed by Terrafugia. The concept is a vehicle that can be driven on land like a car, but also be able to take off vertically and then fly through the air like an airplane. TF-X has wings that can be folded along the side of the vehicle, and has propellers mounted on the far edge of the wings that can be rotated between a vertical and horizontal position. This project was designed to develop a model of TF-X and test the flight potential that this vehicle can achieve. The resulting model has a length of 4.9 m, a width of 2.45 m and a height of 1.82 m when the wings are folded down. The wingspan under flight is 5.5 m. The vehicle has a PW600 turbofan engine that provides thrust during horizontal flight, and 10 Emrax 207 electrical engines that powers two propellers during vertical flight. These engines are powered by 250 kg jet fuel and 100 kg lithium batteries respectively. This gives a vertical flight time of approximate 3 minutes and with a cruising speed of 89 m/s a range of 400 km.