Craziest Aircraft Design Ever

The aircraft has been designed by a German company called IAT 21 Innovative Aeronautics.

The aircraft essentially consists of a fuselage, on which 4 propeller units are mounted. The aircraft can take off and land vertically. The propellers are gimbal mounted. The gimbal works just like the camera gimbals, which allow for smooth camera movements. And this is something that owls do naturally. The gimbal on the aircraft allows for smooth movements of the propeller units in any direction independent of each other. This provides a major advantage to this aircraft, as it gets 360. maneuverability about any spatial axis. It can assume a hovering state just like a hummingbird and rotate about any spatial axis using the gimbal mounted propellers. The gimbals also allow for stable transition from the hovering state into forward flight.

The airfoils on the fuselage help it to achieve a higher flight velocity in forward flight with higher efficiency than known helicopters and quadrocopters. Further, a thrust reversal is also possible in forward flight, which enormously improves the agility of this aircraft. The thrust reversal also enables suctioning onto a fixed vertical or a horizontal surface. So the aircraft can land on vertical walls or on ships in the violent sea.

The airfoils are also collapsible and can be so arranged to minimize the overall aircraft size. This helps in maneuvering and landing the Aircraft in extremely constricted spaces.

In an event of failure of individual propellers, the aircraft is put into autorotation by mutual pivoting of the airfoils to allow for the vertical sinking of the aircraft. The impact on the ground is moderated by generating a lift

Further, solar cells are provided for generating electrical energy, which then powers the aircraft along with the combustion engine.

The aircraft seems to be a hybrid of helicopters, quadcopters, fixed wing aircraft and what not.

The aircraft is still in the development stage. Will it work in real life….

Patent Information
Publication number: US20170057630 A1
Patent Title: Aircraft
Publication date: 2 Mar 2017
Filing date: 17 Feb 2015
Priority date: 18 Feb 2014
Inventors: Meinhard Schwaiger
Original Assignee: Iat 21 Innovative Aeronautics Technologies Gmbh

US2017057630A1