The Boeing Passenger Air Vehicle (PAV) is an American electrical powered autonomous

personal air vehicle A personal air vehicle (PAV) is a proposed class of passenger aircraft providing on-demand air transport. The emergence of this alternative to traditional ground transport methods has been enabled by unmanned aerial vehicle technologies and elec ...

prototype developed by the Boeing NeXt division of

Boeing The Boeing Company, or simply Boeing (), is an American multinational corporation that designs, manufactures, and sells airplanes, rotorcraft, rockets, satellites, and missiles worldwide. The company also provides leasing and product support s ...

with the assistance of

Aurora Flight Sciences Aurora Flight Sciences (AFS) is an American aviation and aeronautics research subsidiary of Boeing that specializes in special-purpose unmanned aerial vehicles. Aurora's headquarters is at Manassas Regional Airport. History In 1989, AFS was ...

Development

Boeing subsidiary

designed an electric

VTOL A vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft is one that can takeoff and landing, take off and land vertically without relying on a runway. This classification can include a variety of types of aircraft including helicopters as well as thrust- ...

prototype, developing it to prototype by 2019. First, a model 1:10 was used to test the concept; it was flown with and without a fuselage. Further flight tests, with a 1:4 scale concept aircraft, were also conducted by Aurora. The PAV first flew on January 22, 2019, in

Manassas, Virginia Manassas (), formerly Manassas Junction, is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. The population was 42,772 at the 2020 Census. It is the county seat of ...

, hovering before further tests and a transition to forward flight. By September 2020, Boeing was to close its Boeing NeXt division, in response to financial losses in the wake of the 737 MAX groundings and the

impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on aviation The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the airline industry due to Travel restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic, travel restrictions and a decimation in demand among travelers. Significant reductions in passenger number ...

Design

The

three-surface aircraft A three-surface aircraft or sometimes three-lifting-surface aircraft has a foreplane, a central wing and a tailplane. The central wing surface always provides lift and is usually the largest, while the functions of the fore and aft planes may ...

has twin booms each supporting four lift rotors slightly angled alternatively outward and inwards, a

pusher propeller In aeronautical and naval engineering, pusher configuration is the term used to describe a drivetrain of air- or watercraft with propulsion device(s) after the engine(s). This is in contrast to the more conventional tractor configuration, whic ...

and the rear wing has vertical surfaces at each end.

Accident

On June 4, 2019, the PAV crashed during its 5th test flight. Boeing representatives declined to disclose details of the crash. During the flight test engineers noted some brief data dropouts and abnormal motor speeds, and decided to terminate the flight. The pilot entered the autoland command, and after a small descent, the aircraft motors went to idle and the aircraft impacted the runway. The aircraft was substantially damaged. A review of the recorded data revealed that vibration occurred and briefly exceeded the jerk logic threshold used to detect contacts to the ground (in addition to squat switches). The aircraft entered the ground mode, subsequently commanding the motors to shutdown.

Specifications (PAV)

References

External links