FanWing 9kg Prototype Distributed-Propulsion Aircraft Flight Test
The FanWing is a distributed-propulsion aircraft with a trapped vortex inside the rotor cage. A cross-flow fan near the leading edge of the wing transfers the work of the engine to the air along the entire wingspan.
source/image: Patrick .Peebles
The resulting increased lift from the trapped vortex and the rearward acceleration of a large volume of air offers very short take-off-and-landing with quiet and efficient short-haul heavy lift capability.
The FanWing has safety features of no sudden stall at high angles of attack, no asymmetry if one engine fails and can auto-rotate (like a helicopter) to make a safe landing if all engines fail.
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Documented efficiencies for the first prototypes were 20 grams of lift per Watt of shaft power and later wind-tunnel tests indicated 29 g/W. Recent tests of a large-scale model have enabled the ‘fan scaling laws’ to be established for this novel configuration and this allows performance predictions of large FanWing aircraft to be made.
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