Inexpensive, light and efficient propulsion system for unmanned aerial vehicles and light aircraft
Integrated Propulsion System (IPS) that is based on a tangential gas turbine that is structurally a part of the propulsion system's centrifugal compressor, wherein the gas turbine's combustion chambers with nozzles are placed to rotate around a larger radius circle at a supersonic circumferential speed, and the fan blades are placed to rotate around a smaller radius circle at a subsonic circumferential speed, therefore increasing the efficiency of the propulsion system.
There
are two main types of aircraft engines: jet and reciprocating.
The
piston engines are generally used only on very small general-aviation
airplanes and some unmanned aerial vehicles. Low efficiency of piston
engines, internal combustion and diesel engines, is around 15% - 25%,
thus contributing to increased fuel consumption. The need to use
high-quality gasoline with the addition of antiknock agents, or
diesel fuel with the addition of ignition promoters, leads to an
increased cost of operation and environmental pollution by
decomposition products of antiknock agents and promoters (lead,
manganese, nickel, nitrogen oxides). Vibration, uneven torque,
mechanical stress require a margin of safety for piston engine parts. The
production of piston engines requires precision parts and is
therefore expensive.
Aircraft
gas turbines and ramjet engines are widely used propulsion systems
with excellent figures of specific thrust in kgf/kg and specific fuel
consumption per unit of thrust per hour in kg/kgf*hour.
The
design of ramjet engine (aero thermodynamic duct), a form of
airbreathing jet engine that uses the forward motion of the engine to
produce thrust, is the simplest among all thermal engines. The
efficiency of ramjet engines is the highest among all other thermal
engines. However, their main disadvantage is they produce no thrust
when stationary (no ram air) and are most efficient only at
supersonic speeds. Therefore, ramjet-powered vehicles require an
assisted take-off, and are pre-accelerated to the speed of sound
using turbojet engines in aircraft, or using a rocket booster in
missile.
A
gas turbine, also called a combustion turbine, is a type of
continuous flow internal combustion engine, consisting of a rotating
gas compressor, a combustor and a compressor-driving turbine. The
thermodynamic cycle of a gas turbine engine consists of atmospheric
air flows through the compressor that brings it to higher pressure;
energy is then added by injecting fuel into the air and igniting it
so that the combustion generates a high-temperature flow; this
high-temperature pressurized gas enters a turbine, producing a shaft
work output in the process, used to drive the compressor; the unused
energy is dispersed in the exhaust gases.
The
manufacturing cost of gas turbines is higher than that of other
thermal engines.
There
are axial, radial, tangential and transverse (lateral) types of gas
turbines. Tangential jet turbines are of greatest interest because
they can operate without rotor blades. In tangential jet turbines,
the torque on the rotor is created by a reactive force of the
tangentially directed outflow jet from rotating nozzles.
Integrated Propulsion System (IPS) is based on a
tangential gas turbine integrated with a centrifugal
compressor.
The
proposed propulsion system weighs only 1/20 the piston engine and
1/10 the turbine engine with a fuel consumption of only 1/3 the
piston engine and 1/5 the turbine engine of an equal power output.
The
market for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) is fast-growing. Due to the
high efficiency, the fuel consumption of an IPS UAV weighing about
0.6 tons will be no more than 5 kg per hour (in economy mode). With a
fuel reserve of 120 kg, the UAV will be able to stay in air for 24
hours or more. The demand for inexpensive
kamikaze
drones
(loitering munition) proved to be extremely high as the war in
Ukraine shows. Equipping flying munitions with disposable super-cheap
IPS can be super profitable.
In
the times of peace, the light aircraft markets of Asia, Africa and
South America are filled with used aircraft from Europe, Japan and
North America. However, in the absence of a service infrastructure
and the need of high-quality fuel, the operation of uneconomical used
aircraft is too expensive for residents of the developing countries.
Therefore, the market niche of low-budget and unpretentious aircraft
still remains unfulfilled, and, with an adequate supply, can absorb
thousands of such aircraft annually.
Our wholly-owned subsidiary, Alternate Dimension Space Technologies, Inc., is currently developing a multifunctional, long-range, inexpensive UAV 'Avenger' based on the IPS.