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I don't think that drone delivery is dead in the water. In fact I think it is on the horizon for sure. What I want to see is a safer propulsion system. For instance... Dyson has a fan that has no exposed blades.
It uses the Bernoulli principle which provides the basis for common aircraft wings and also in jet engines, by using a curved surface to create high and low pressure zones and create lift in flight, or in this case air in a cone or tube shape (or air multiplier), to increase air flow. The resulting pressurized airflow creates a low pressure area behind the cone which draws more air through the cone to increase total airflow. Using three basic principles of airflow it is able to move very little actual air through the fan system, and yet result in massively greater airflow through the cone.
The Airfoil principal used in aircraft wings, coupled with the cone diameter which gets larger towards the face (or bottom in the case of lift propulsion), and finally viscous shearing (which pulls air down around the cone as well, giving even more lift), all combine to give the ability to move large volumes of air with relatively little actual forced air. To change it from just fan speed air going horizontal to actual vertical propulsion air in order to create the kind of lift needed to raise a quad, you need only turn the tubes to face downward (or rearward for forward propulsion), reduce the diameter of the tubes to create greater pressure difference between front and back (or top and bottom as the quad would need) and increase the pressure of the air through the slot around the tubes.
This could easily be adapted to quad or octocopters. The entire thing could be controlled by servo-dampers at each of the individual propulsion tubes facing downward controlling how much pressure is administered to each propulsion tube, and the device would only need one fan to pull air in and create the force necessary to push out the air at the propulsion tubes. Since it only needs one fan, it could be completely encased in the center of the device,. facing upwards, and protected by screen so no fingers or birds could be sucked in. Then it just needs to vary the intensity of the propulsion tubes to create the lift and directional travel desired.
This could be further enhanced by allowing the propulsion tubes to rotate slightly, maybe 20 to 30 degrees and provide even significantly greater flight speeds. This is no different in concept than the Osprey, except that the Osprey uses exposed blades. In fact, this could be completely done with just one tube and a fully gyroscopically controlled gimbal for the propulsion tube, although a minimum of 3 tubes would be far more stable and provide greater control of speed, direction and lift.
We have the technology to do this now, so why not adapt it to flight? It's not all that different than a jet engine in one respect. It's the shape of the jet engine's cowling, coupled with the increasingly smaller fans and narrower path that draws in more air and pressurizes it before injecting and igniting the fuel, and then for even greater thrust injecting fuel through the afterburners to produce the tremendous quantity of expanding air through the nozzle at the rear of the jet engine.
I want to see this (minus the jet fuel process mind you), worked into a quad copter. I believe it's coming.
It uses the Bernoulli principle which provides the basis for common aircraft wings and also in jet engines, by using a curved surface to create high and low pressure zones and create lift in flight, or in this case air in a cone or tube shape (or air multiplier), to increase air flow. The resulting pressurized airflow creates a low pressure area behind the cone which draws more air through the cone to increase total airflow. Using three basic principles of airflow it is able to move very little actual air through the fan system, and yet result in massively greater airflow through the cone.
The Airfoil principal used in aircraft wings, coupled with the cone diameter which gets larger towards the face (or bottom in the case of lift propulsion), and finally viscous shearing (which pulls air down around the cone as well, giving even more lift), all combine to give the ability to move large volumes of air with relatively little actual forced air. To change it from just fan speed air going horizontal to actual vertical propulsion air in order to create the kind of lift needed to raise a quad, you need only turn the tubes to face downward (or rearward for forward propulsion), reduce the diameter of the tubes to create greater pressure difference between front and back (or top and bottom as the quad would need) and increase the pressure of the air through the slot around the tubes.
This could easily be adapted to quad or octocopters. The entire thing could be controlled by servo-dampers at each of the individual propulsion tubes facing downward controlling how much pressure is administered to each propulsion tube, and the device would only need one fan to pull air in and create the force necessary to push out the air at the propulsion tubes. Since it only needs one fan, it could be completely encased in the center of the device,. facing upwards, and protected by screen so no fingers or birds could be sucked in. Then it just needs to vary the intensity of the propulsion tubes to create the lift and directional travel desired.
This could be further enhanced by allowing the propulsion tubes to rotate slightly, maybe 20 to 30 degrees and provide even significantly greater flight speeds. This is no different in concept than the Osprey, except that the Osprey uses exposed blades. In fact, this could be completely done with just one tube and a fully gyroscopically controlled gimbal for the propulsion tube, although a minimum of 3 tubes would be far more stable and provide greater control of speed, direction and lift.
We have the technology to do this now, so why not adapt it to flight? It's not all that different than a jet engine in one respect. It's the shape of the jet engine's cowling, coupled with the increasingly smaller fans and narrower path that draws in more air and pressurizes it before injecting and igniting the fuel, and then for even greater thrust injecting fuel through the afterburners to produce the tremendous quantity of expanding air through the nozzle at the rear of the jet engine.
I want to see this (minus the jet fuel process mind you), worked into a quad copter. I believe it's coming.
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