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Cargo-carrying long range VTOL moves to full scale prototype stage
Florida's Aergility has spent the last few years developing and testing a new kind of vertical take-off and landing aircraft (VTOL) called the ATLIS. The wingless autonomous delivery drone is being designed to fly at 100 mph for hundreds of miles on a single tank of gas, making use of a proprietary lift and control system called managed autorotation.
The ATLIS VTOL features an array of eight electric rotors to provide lift and control, and a gas-powered prop at the rear for forward momentum. While in the air, this "very unconventional gyrocopter" makes use of something Aergility is calling managed autorotation.
Company founder and CEO Jim Vander Mey told General Aviation News that the patent-pending system uses a flight controller to manage the revs of the rotors. Lift is achieved by powering up all of the rotors at the same time, while firing up select rotors and simultaneously slowing down others helps with turning. Regen braking is used to recoup energy expended during take-off and landing, meaning that "there is no net electrical energy consumed over the course of the flight."
