The Pipistrel Nuuva V300 is an unmanned hybrid-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 ...
cargo aircraft currently under development by
Pipistrel
Pipistrel d.o.o Ajdovščina is a Slovenian light aircraft manufacturer established in 1989Or 1989... --> by Ivo Boscarol and based in Ajdovščina. Its facilities are located in Ajdovščina, Slovenia, and near the town of Gorizia, Italy. By Ma ...
and projected to be released in 2023.
The aircraft has eight electric motors driving propellers providing lift as well as a single internal combustion engine driving a propeller providing thrust. The company claims that the aircraft will be able to operate with a typical cargo weight of and a typical range of .
In October 2020 the company announced that the aircraft would implement a
Honeywell
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
fly-by-wire
Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight control co ...
system.
Design and development
The aircraft is a
tandem wing design, with the rear wing of a larger wingspan than the front one. Both wings are attached to a fuselage, which features a large front door on the nose to access the internal cargo hold and an
internal combustion engine
An internal combustion engine (ICE or IC engine) is a heat engine in which the combustion of a fuel occurs with an oxidizer (usually air) in a combustion chamber that is an integral part of the working fluid flow circuit. In an internal combus ...
with 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 ...
at the rear end.
A pair of booms, one at each side of the aircraft, connect both wings and serve primarily to support eight electric engines intended for vertical propulsion. Each electric engine turns a 2-blade propeller.
In October 2020 the company announced that the aircraft would implement a
Honeywell
Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...
fly-by-wire
Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight control co ...
system with triple redundancy for the autonomous flight control of the vehicle.
The flight itself would be autonomous but managed remotely by a ground-based operator.
Pipistrel is planning for the Nuuva V300 to enter service in the second half of 2023. A smaller variant, the Nuuva V20, is expected to start operating as early as 2021 and would carry payloads of up to .
Specifications
See also
*
Pipistrel 801 eVTOL
References
External links
Manufacturer Website
Hybrid electric aircraft
Proposed aircraft of Slovenia
Unmanned aerial vehicles of Slovenia
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