A VTOL Cargo Drone Concept

We have come up with a pretty sweet VTOL cargo drone concept with integrated hub electric motors. In this article, we present you our VTOL cargo drone solution with electric propulsion motors. How this design did come together, the pros and cons we have recognized and what makes this concept an ultimate VTOL cargo drone for the aerospace.

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So here we start with the problem description and the features required by Airbus as in below original text. At the bottom of this page, you can find these requirements in a simplified list.

Information provided by Airbus:

The Problem:

As technology advances so do opportunities. The global use of drones is ever-growing, however commercial and civil-use drones do not yet play the important role they should. The notion that autonomous aircraft are restricted, via cost and law, to government and military uses is vastly diminishing, and civil drones have become the next frontier.

Imagine sending a vital piece of hardware from your distribution center directly to your manufacturing facility across town in 15 minutes without a truck driver. Or flying in life-saving medicine and vaccines to remote areas of the world without needing any highway infrastructure.

Other civil drone systems have had marginal success, but not with the bandwidth we (Airbus) intend to use. This project will create a new standard of parcel delivery, humanitarian missions, and health care capabilities for improved quality of life for everyone.

Features:

The solution must allow for simple reconfiguration or adaptation, as it will be used - safely and effectively - for things such as agriculture monitoring, infrastructure inspection, cargo delivery, or humanitarian missions.

The aircraft shall be designed for vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and efficient forward flight; a hybrid design created through the merging of design elements from both multi-rotors and fixed-wing aircraft. As such, the aircraft shall include at least 4 rotors (lifting motors / rotors). All propulsion shall be directly driven, fixed-pitch propellers, and the total number of motors shall not exceed 10. The aircraft will operate in two flight modes, a hover mode for takeoff and landing, and a forward flight mode for efficient travel. At least one motor must be used for forward thrust in the fixed-wing flight mode.

While keeping in mind that the payload concept should be modular - i.e. suitable for cargo transport, mounting sensors or other applications - the aircraft shall be designed to weigh less than 25 kg with a single, fixed and internal cargo bay that accepts a payload from 3 to 5 kg. The aircraft shall be able to accommodate a minimum payload dimension of 450 x 350 x 200 mm. All payloads shall be restrained within the payload bay to avoid shift of the payload during flight, regardless of size or weight. The cargo in the cargo bay shall be easily accessible and interchangeable and impossible to jettison in flight. The cargo payload bay should be able to accommodate payloads smaller than that through a fixture that is to be designed. The cruise speed of the aircraft in forward flight should be at least 80 km/h, and maximum speed shall not exceed 194 km/h. The power system shall be purely electric, and energy storage will be in the form of an off-the shelf rechargeable battery.

The aircraft design shall avoid the use of tilting wings or tilting motors / rotors for the sake of simplicity. This helps minimize manufacturing costs, and reduces the number of potential points of failure. Along the same lines, variable pitch propellers shall be avoided.

It should be clear that the intent of this aircraft is for medical cargo delivery, humanitarian missions, and other civilian applications. There should be no design concessions made for military use, i.e. no weapons, armor, or countermeasures.

The most successful entrants will keep simplicity in mind, and their designs will be optimized for ease of use, including maintenance, a quick as possible turnaround time between flights, swappable batteries, and ease of cargo loading / unloading. Designs should also consider the ability of the aircraft to operate safely in all states of flight, including weather conditions of wind up to 10 m/s, a temperature range of -30 to 50 degrees C, and moderate rain.

Fuselage

Having safety in mind, we have focused on gliding concepts only; so that in case of all systems failure, the drone would still safely land even if the parachute fails to open.

For the fuselage we chose NACA25017 airfoil that will cover the payload of 350x200x450mm size; and smoothly integrate with the wings.

Wings

On this concept, we were inspired by the "flying squirrel" (a.k.a. sugar glider) which also inspired the development of the "wingsuits".

So we chose the airfoil MA409 that is designed for free flight applications and has proven itself in numerous unlimited fly-offs for fast climb and good glide endurance. The MA409 has a low zero-lift drag coefficient, which aids in the overall performance.

Wings are designed foldable in order to make transport flexible and easy.

Electric Propulsion Motor

We call it "Electric Propulsion Motor" because the propellers become the rotor of the electric motor therefore part of the electric motor.

We have preferred ducted propellers to secure safety on ground and avoid using servo-motors to keep flight control simple.

By the way, if you haven't checked our ultra light custom axial flux DC electric motor yet, you may want to take a look now.

Cockpit / Nose Fuselage

We have placed all the vital flight systems such as: Flight Control Computer, Antennas, Transponder, Communication System and the Camera System in a waterproof cockpit. Cockpit, at the same time, serves as the cargo door. It is power supplied by a spring cable connected to the battery which we placed right in the middle of the drone -onto the center of gravity.

Optionally vacuum can be applied to improve thermal convection and avoid humidity inside the cockpit.

Payload bay

A single payload bay shall be located near the aircraft center of gravity. Minimum payload bay dimension shall be 450 x 350 x 200 mm. The payload bay shall be located and accessible from the lower side of the aircraft and must be interchangeable with payload bay of same size and same interface. (Payload concept shall be modular to fulfill applications different from the cargo use case. e.g. sensor payload).