Systems and methods relate to a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) platform that can include a stator and a rotor magnetically levitated by the stator. The rotor and stator can be annular, such that the rotor rotates about a rotational axis. The stator can include magnets that provide guidance, levitation, and drive forces to drive the rotor, as well as to control operation of rotor blades of the rotor that can be independently rotated to specific pitch angles to control at least one of lift, pitch, roll, or yaw of the VTOL platform. Various controllers can be used to enable independent and redundant control of components of the VTOL platform.

A VTOL aircraft (1), including: a fuselage (2) for transporting passengers and/or load; a front wing (3) attached to the fuselage (2); an aft wing (4) attached to the fuselage (2), behind the front wing (3) in a direction of forward flight (FF); a right connecting beam (5a) and a left connecting beam (5b), which connecting beams (5a, 5b) structurally connect the front wing (3) and the aft wing (4), which connecting beams (5a, 5b) are spaced apart from the fuselage (2); and at least two propulsion units (6) on each one of the connecting beams (5a, 5b). The propulsion units (6) include at least one propeller (6b, 6b′) and at least one motor (6a) driving the propeller (6b, 6b′), preferably an electric motor, and are arranged with their respective propeller axis in an essentially vertical orientation (z).

The lifting, stabilizing and propelling arrangement for vertical take-off and landing aircraft, uses rotating wings, turbines or lift fans, propellers and stabilizers on the trailing edges of the wings and empennages, centrifugal or tangential turbines applied on the sides of the fuselage, on the inlet and outlet edges of the wings, or centrifugal or tangential turbines on the sides of the fuselage and inside the wings, those that carry the fuselage are fixed and produce only lift and those that go in the wings they rotate with them and produce lift during vertical flight and propulsion during horizontal flight, add some horizontal stabilizing fans at the tips of the wings and others for direction in the vertical empennage.

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles also known as UAVs or Drones, either autonomous or remotely piloted, are classified as drones by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as weighing under 212 pounds. The system described herein details Autonomous Flight Vehicles (AFV) which weigh over 212 pounds but less than 1,320 pounds which may require either a new classification or a classification such as Sport Light Aircraft, but without the requirement of a pilot due to the safe autonomous flight system such as the Safe Temporal Vector Integration Engine or STeVIE. Safe Autonomous Light Aircraft (SALA) are useful as drone carriers, large scale air package or cargo transport, and even human transport depending on the total lift capability of the platform.

A rotor system includes a rotor assembly and a duct system. The rotor assembly includes rotor blades extending from a mast axis and configured to rotate about the mast axis. The duct assembly includes a moveable duct portion and a stationary duct portion. In a first duct configuration, the moveable duct portion surrounds a first portion of the rotor assembly, the stationary duct portion surrounds a second portion of the rotor assembly, and the moveable duct portion and the stationary duct portion enclose the rotor assembly. In a second duct configuration, the stationary duct portion surrounds the second portion of the rotor assembly, and the moveable duct portion is moved away from the first portion of the rotor assembly, such that the rotor assembly is not enclosed.

A tailsitter aircraft includes an airframe having first and second wings with first and second pylons extending therebetween, a thrust array attached to the airframe, payloads and payload saddle assemblies coupled to the pylons each configured to secure a respective payload. The thrust array includes propulsion assemblies configured to transition the airframe between a forward flight orientation for wing-borne lift and a VTOL orientation for thrust-borne lift. Each payload saddle assembly includes a latch assembly and a retainer configured to secure the respective payload against a respective pylon. A latch assembly is movable between various positions including an open position and a closed position and is configured to secure the respective payload in the closed position and release the respective payload in the open position. Each latch assembly is configured to move from the closed position to the open position to release the respective payload in the VTOL orientation.

An electric reaction control system that can selectively expel a “burst” or “puff” of air to alter the orientation of the aircraft during flight. An aircraft incorporating ducting, an air compressor, an electric motor, and a plurality of nozzles can facilitate in-flight trajectory modifications. When an air burst is needed to provide thrust for the purposes of reaction control, nozzles are selectively opened and closed to provide roll, pitch, and yaw of the aircraft. The ERCS can facilitate an electric aircraft that would be very agile and very light, utilizing electric power, as opposed to jet power.

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft can provide opportunities to incorporate aerial transportation into transportation networks for cities and metropolitan areas. However, VTOL aircraft may be noisy. To accommodate this, the aircraft may utilize onboard sensors, offboard sensing, network, and predictive temporal data for noise signature mitigation. By building a composite understanding of real data offboard the aircraft, the aircraft can make adjustments to the way it is flying and verify this against a predicted noise signature (via computational methods) to reduce environmental impact. This might be realized via a change in translative speed, propeller speed, or choices in propulsor usage (e.g., a quiet propulsor vs. a high thrust, noisier propulsor). These noise mitigation actions may also be decided at the network level rather than the vehicle level to balance concerns across a city and relieve computing constraints on the aircraft.

A control system for a multi-rotor aircraft is described that results in lower operating noise. Allowing blades to flap during flight reduces aerodynamic interference as blades pass by other aircraft components, such as wings or the fuselage. Pitch links coupled to a rotational swashplate can be used to allow flapping during flight. The swashplates can allow the canting of the rotors to change a rotational or out-of-plane angle of the blades to decrease noise.

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft can provide opportunities to incorporate aerial transportation into transportation networks for cities and metropolitan areas. However, VTOL aircraft can be sensitive to uneven weight distributions, e.g., the payload of an aircraft is primarily loaded in the front, back, left, or right. When the aircraft is loaded unevenly, the center of mass of the aircraft may shift substantially enough to negatively impact performance of the aircraft. Thus, in turn, there is an opportunity that the VTOL may be loaded unevenly if seating and/or luggage placement is not coordinated. Among other advantages, dynamically assigning the VTOL aircraft payloads can increase VTOL safety by ensuring the VTOL aircraft is loaded evenly and meets all weight requirements; can increase transportation efficiency by increasing rider throughput; and can increase the availability of the VTOL services to all potential riders.