The shift in electric VTOL aircraft design has been everywhere in recent years, but mostly to simple lift and cruise designs with separate horizontal and vertical thrust systems, or vector thrust designs that tilt the propulsion system independently of the wings. is either
Tilting wing designs became less common, perhaps out of concern that vertical wings would catch too much wind in hovering situations, making it difficult for the aircraft to remain level and maintain its position.
Either way, ASX has taken the tilt-wing concept as the basis for the Sigma 6, and it’s certainly an interesting beast. The entire 43-foot (11.6 m) wide canted wing and his V-tail assembly, with six large-diameter propellers and a set of trailing landing gear, is designed to be removed from clip-on passenger and cargo pods. It has been. Under.
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Pods are pretty huge in the context of the emerging eVTOL market. The cargo pod he carries a payload of 2,000 pounds (907 kg), the passenger pod he can carry six to eight people, and the top speed in the air is he 250 mph (400 km / h) . When the Sigma 6 lands, the pod detaches from the airframe and rolls onto a small, self-powered electric skateboard chassis with all-wheel drive and omni-directional wheels. The same skateboard robot can lift and move the entire aircraft as needed.
It might sound a little over the top, but ASX is ahead of the competition on this idea. In fact, the company has even built a prototype of this ground logistics system and tested it at full scale. In the video below, you can see the skateboard robot moving the pod, placing it under the fuselage, picking it up and locking it.
The 200 kWh battery pack will be installed in the pod instead of the airframe. ASX says each is suitable for a flight range of about 150 miles (240 km), but the pods are interchangeable so you don’t have to leave the aircraft unattended while the battery charges, which is costly. increase. Please insert another one.
It is the 6th generation prototype of ASX. Although it has not yet been flight tested, it appears that his VTOL system on the wing and his 6-struts did tethered hovering.
The company has raised approximately US$4.1 million worth of funding to date, but is still raising capital and is seeking smaller public investors through its crowdfunding platform. We have obtained Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) from several potential customers of 100 aircraft and Letters of Intent (LOIs) from the Navy Future Air Mobility Command, but no such communications It is difficult to say what is actually worth.
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AFWERX Agility Prime team has announced that ASX has approved to move to Phase 3 of the Innovative Capabilities Launch process. This means that the AFWERX team will accept and consider your complete written proposal. and present a prototype.
ASX plans to begin large-scale production of these machines in 2025, with 100 aircraft to be produced by outside contractors, and to build its own factory for mass production starting with 500 units in 2027. is going to be built. Of course, getting there requires going through a long, arduous, and expensive FAA certification process, so you’ll need to secure some funding.
One of the cool things that a pod-on-wheels or wing concept like this could potentially do is have a ground robot handle the last mile travel at the end of the journey and put passengers in a door-to-door bubble. . But as we discussed last month looking at similar early-stage modular eVTOL proposals from Node Air and JetX, this kind of certification is a nightmare.Must be approved as a fully autonomous vehicle When as a commercial aircraft.
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The road ahead looks incredibly grim for all eVTOL companies, but ASX seems to have taken this modular pod concept in a sane way with limited funding. Check out the pitch video below.
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Source: ASX by Urban Air Mobility News
