An improved vehicle with superior performance and reliability. The vehicle, such as an unmanned aerial vehicle, is capable of vertical takeoff and landing, uses three swashless, variable-pitch vertical lift main rotors with a yaw tail rotor system. Two rear main rotors are optionally tiltrotors, which pivot to increase forward speed without the increased coefficient of drag inherent in tilting the entire vehicle. The three main rotors are positioned in an equilateral triangular configuration, improving balance, increasing load-bearing strength, and making it more compact in size. Movements are controlled through changes in pitch of the rotors, allowing the motors to maintain constant governed rotations per minute, maximizing drivetrain efficiency. Vehicle configurations disclosed herein allow for smaller vehicle size with greater performance than prior art vehicles.

An aircraft is provided including an airframe, an extending tail, and a counter rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly including an upper rotor assembly composed of a plurality of blades and a lower rotor assembly composed of a plurality of blades. A translational thrust system positioned at the extending tail, the translational thrust system providing translational thrust to the airframe. A flight control system to control the upper rotor assembly and the lower rotor assembly, wherein the flight control system is configured to control lift offset of the upper rotor assembly and the lower rotor assembly.

Provided is a quiet redundant urban rotorcraft, commonly known as urban air mobility eVTOL. The quiet redundant urban rotorcraft is designed to perform vertical takeoff and landings powered by two independent electric lifting motors. The lifting force is distributed among counter-rotating, co-axial main multi-bladed rotors and several smaller rotors distributed around the vehicle which provide attitude control during hover and low speed flight. The quiet redundant urban rotorcraft is capable to fly at relatively high horizontal speed by using a dedicated horizontal thrust propeller driven by an electric motor, turbine or internal combustion engine. In high speed flight, the main rotors turn freely, the control electric motors turn off and the attitude control is provided by aerodynamic fixed and moving surfaces. The quiet redundant urban rotorcraft has a low noise footprint and multiple redundancy for safety, while at the same time having a compact configuration for operating area restrictions.

A rotor wing aircraft provided with a propulsion apparatus is disclosed. The aircraft has a rotating mast configured to rotate said rotor wing and the apparatus includes a pole mechanically connectable to the rotating mast of the aircraft. At one of the ends of the pole there is placed an electric turbine, powered by a battery, and configured to rotate the pole around an axis of the rotating mast in such a way that the rotation of the pole can be used to rotate the rotor wing. Preferably the pole is made of carbon fiber.

A method of providing an anti-torque force in a rotorcraft with an anti-torque system comprised of a primary ducted tail rotor system mechanically connected to an engine, and a secondary ducted tail rotor system electrically connected to an electric power supply. The method includes receiving an indication of a change in the operating condition of the anti-torque system based upon a change in a rotorcraft condition input, a feedback input associated with a primary ducted tail rotor system and/or a secondary ducted tail rotor system, and/or a pilot input; responsive to the indication of the change, determining, by a control system, an anti-torque control input including at least a secondary output command for controlling the secondary ducted tail rotor system; and transmitting the secondary output command to the secondary ducted tail rotor system to energize at least one ducted tail rotor assembly therein to provide the second anti-torque force.

An aircraft defining longitudinal, lateral and vertical directions the aircraft comprising:

a main wing and a tail, each being pivotable about the lateral direction;
a plurality of main propellers mounted to the main wing, and configured to pivot with the main wing;
at least one cruise propeller mounted to the tail, and configured to pivot with the tail;
the main propellers defining a swept disc area (A.sub.disc), and the main wing defines a wing area (Awing); wherein
a ratio of the disc swept area to the main wing area (A.sub.disc:A.sub.wing) is between 1 and 2.

An aircraft defining longitudinal, lateral and vertical directions the aircraft comprising: a main wing and a tail, each being pivotable about the lateral direction (B); a plurality of main propellers mounted to the main wing, and configured to pivot with the main wing; at least one cruise propeller mounted to the tail, and configured to pivot with the tail; each main propeller being stowable from a deployed position to a stowed position; wherein each main propeller has a fixed pitch, and each cruise propeller has a variable pitch.

A yaw control system of an aircraft includes an aircraft having an airframe extending along a longitudinal axis, a coaxial contra-rotating main rotor system rotatable about a first axis, and a rotor system rotatable about a second axis to move air between a first side of the airframe and a second, opposite side of the airframe. The first side and the second side are disposed on opposing sides of the longitudinal axis. The yaw control provided by operation of the rotor system is supplemental to the yaw control provided by the coaxial contra-rotating main rotor system.

A tail rotor system for an aircraft includes a tail rotor hub, a tail rotor drive shaft mechanically connected to the tail rotor hub, and an electric motor coupled to the tail rotor drive shaft.

An aircraft includes an airframe having an extending tail and a longitudinal axis extending from a nose of the airframe defining a length of the airframe. A counter rotating, coaxial main rotor assembly is located at the airframe and includes an upper rotor assembly and a lower rotor assembly. The upper rotor assembly and the lower rotor assembly rotate about an axis of rotation. The axis of rotation intersects the longitudinal axis forward of a midpoint of the longitudinal axis.