Quiet, efficient propulsors for SSTOL and UAM

Near peer competitors and adversaries increasingly hold fixed overseas U.S. military installations at risk, and the U.S. Air Force is adapting with new mobile and distributed basing and operations strategies. Rapid movement of personnel and supplies using aircraft that are not beholden to large, improved airfields is a critical enabler for such strategies. In addition, these agile, short-field or runway independent systems are expected to provide an advantage in urban operations.  The Air Force is now leveraging the commercial Urban Air Mobility (UAM) movement, pulling relevant advances and investment into defense-focused demonstrations through the Agility Prime program. Whenever commercial and dual use systems are pursued for defense applications, technology modifications and subsystem infusions are often needed to address DoD-specific needs, requirements, and specifications. Quiet performance is one such example, and novel acoustics techniques are sought by the Agility Prime program. Cornerstone Research Group (CRG) and the University of Cincinnati (UC) propose to develop quiet, efficient, electric ducted propulsors sized to address the weight, power, thrust, and speed class of aircraft pursued by the UAM industry, Super-Short Takeoff and Landing (SSTOL) thin-haul market, and Agility Prime. CRG’s ducted propulsors are designed for quiet operation from the start, and exceed the acoustic performance of quiet open-rotor or propeller technology. UC’s Gas Turbine Simulation Laboratory continues to advance fan, compressor, and turbine design and optimization toolsets, capturing the effects of unique airframe-propulsion integration challenges early in the design process. This enables UC to establish 3D fan-stage designs with state-of-the-art efficiency which translates directly into increased range.   CRG and UC will couple the advancements that each organization has made in aircraft propulsion to provide the necessary acoustics performance with state-of-the-art efficiency, critical to meeting future Air Force needs, especially when many of these new platforms are electric-only and limited by battery technology.    CRG anticipates Air Mobility Command (AMC) and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) are potential users for systems that would leverage these propulsion advancements.  In addition, CRG currently provides quiet propulsors for Group 2 and Group 3 UAS for several DoD customers. Commercial opportunities for the technology have focused on eVTOL, thin-haul, and UAM concepts developed by airframers and integrators that include distributed, ducted propulsion. The commercial market cares just as much about noise as the DoD, because quiet performance expands aircraft operation into regions governed with noise restrictions.  Due to the emerging markets for quiet, distributed, electric propulsion for both commercial and DoD, CRG is pursuing product plans focused on delivering power and propulsion systems into these markets.