The Boeing Passenger Air Vehicle (PAV) is an American autonomous

personal air vehicle A personal air vehicle (PAV) is a proposed type of aircraft providing on-demand aviation services. The emergence of this alternative to traditional ground transport methods has been enabled by unmanned aerial vehicle technologies and electric pr ...

prototype developed by the

Boeing NeXt Boeing NeXt was a division of aerospace manufacturer Boeing, exploring urban air mobility. Its portfolio includes a passenger air vehicle (PAV), a cargo air vehicle (CAV) and other urban, regional and global mobility platforms. By September 202 ...

division of

Boeing The Boeing Company () is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, telecommunications equipment, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product ...

with the assistance of

Aurora Flight Sciences Aurora Flight Sciences is an American aviation and aeronautics research subsidiary of Boeing which primarily specializes in the design and construction of special-purpose Unmanned aerial vehicles. Aurora has been established for 20+ years and th ...

Development

Boeing subsidiary

designed an electric

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust-vectoring fixed-win ...

prototype, developing it to prototype by 2019. First, a model 1:10 was used to test the concept; it was flown with and without a fuselage. Further flight tests, with a 1:4 scale concept aircraft, were also conducted by Aurora. The PAV first flew on January 22, 2019, in

Manassas, Virginia Manassas (), formerly Manassas Junction, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The population was 42,772 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of Prince William County, although the two are separate jurisdi ...

, hovering before further tests and a transition to forward flight. By September 2020, Boeing was to close its Boeing NeXt division, in response to financial losses in the wake of the 737 MAX groundings and the

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the airline industry due to travel restrictions and a decimation in demand among travelers. Significant reductions in passenger numbers have resulted in flights being cancelled or planes ...

Design

The

three-surface aircraft A three-surface aircraft or sometimes three-lifting-surface aircraft has a foreplane, a central wing and a tailplane. The central wing surface always provides lift and is usually the largest, while the functions of the fore and aft planes may ...

has twin booms each supporting four lift rotors slightly angled alternatively outward and inwards, a

pusher propeller In an aircraft with a pusher configuration (as opposed to a tractor configuration), the propeller(s) are mounted behind their respective engine(s). Since a pusher propeller is mounted behind the engine, the drive shaft is in compression in nor ...

and the rear wing has vertical surfaces at each end.

Accident

On June 4, 2019, the PAV crashed during its 5th test flight. Boeing representatives declined to disclose details of the crash. During the flight test engineers noted some brief data dropouts and abnormal motor speeds, and decided to terminate the flight. The pilot entered the autoland command, and after a small descent, the aircraft motors went to idle and the aircraft impacted the runway. The aircraft was substantially damaged. A review of the recorded data revealed that vibration occurred and briefly exceeded the jerk logic threshold used to detect contacts to the ground (in addition to squat switches). The aircraft entered the ground mode, subsequently commanding the motors to shutdown.

Specifications (PAV)

References

External links