SBIR/STTR Research Award
Electric Lift Fan for VTOL Air Vehicle
Award amount
$1,717,950Program and phase
SBIR · Phase IIAward year
2010Award details
- Awarding agency
- Department of Defense
- Branch
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
- Recipient company
- AURORA FLIGHT SCIENCES CORPORATION
- Proposal award date
- 2010-08-27
- Contract end date
- 2013-01-31
- UEI
- K1L1BZLNPWC4
- Solicitation number
- 2009.1
- Topic code
- SB091-014
Research abstract
The need exists for safe, high power density electric lift fans, especially for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) air vehicle applications. The unique approach proposed here uses electric power to drive a brushless ring motor and fan inside a duct. The ring motor is scalable and requires no gearing, linkages, or hot-gas plumbing. The low disk loading compared to turbojets and turbofans minimizes the amount of debris kicked up during operation, yet all rotating blades are enclosed inside a duct eliminating the safety hazard of exposed blades. With the advancements being made in specific power and efficiencies both in power electronics and electric motors, these powerplants have become a viable heavy lift option for VTOL applications. This research focuses specifically on the development of a low inductance brushless DC ring motor coupled with high switching frequency power electronics to be used to drive a light weight lift fan.
Technology keywords
Not reported
Other awards by this recipient
Verified by the same UEI. These are other public SBIR/STTR award pages, not a merged company record.
- RApid Verification and Validation Techniques (RAVVT)
- Aerial Aquatic Ordnance Removal Vehicle (AEQUOR-V)
- Spacecraft Swarm Coordination and Planning Tool
- Vertical Lift by Series Hybrid Power
- Tool for Collaborative Autonomy
Awards with the same topic code
Verified by an exact topic code match. This is not a text-similarity match.
- A High T/W, Low Cost VTOL Propulsion System for Transformer (TX) Applications
- A High T/W, Low TSFC Propulsion System for PAV Applications
- Personal Air Vehicle Lift Fan Design (PAV-LiFaD)
Research funding history
172 SBIR/STTR records share this UEI (1990–2017). Reported award amounts total $52,953,955. Reported amounts are not federal obligations.
Phases: Phase I, Phase II
Agencies: Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Science Foundation, Department of Commerce
Contractor profile
AURORA FLIGHT SCIENCES CORPORATION
Historical federal award activity, when published, is on that contractor profile. Matched by UEI only.
Agency intelligence
NAICS intelligence
This classification comes from the contractor profile, not from the SBIR award record.