The Transcend Air Vy 400 is a
tiltwing convertible aircraft developed by American startup
Transcend Air.
Development
In September 2018, Transcend was flying two electric-powered, one-fifth-
scale prototypes to evaluate aerodynamics of the vertical and forward flight transition.
It should be followed by a half-scale
prototype
A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...
powered by a smaller
PT6
The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Its design was started in 1958, it first ran in February 1960, first flew on 30 May 1961, entered service in 1964 and has been continuously up ...
to demonstrate the drive train.
A 2019
Series A round would fund a full-scale manned prototype flying in 18–24 months, for a 2023 end certification.
A
manufacturing
Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...
partner is sought to certify the aircraft for $350–500 million and produce it.
[
By November 2018, Transcend had selected VerdeGo Aero to provide hybrid electric propulsion systems after the turbine version.][
The company wants to establish a short-haul scheduled airline between ]barge
Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...
s in 46 cities like Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...
-New York/Washington, San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
-Los Angeles/San Diego or Montreal-Toronto, for less door-to-door cost than the combined cost of existing airlines plus ground transport while avoiding paying for an empty re-positioning leg like air charters, but is skeptical about the on-demand model behind urban air mobility.[
]
Design
Being half the size of the Leonardo AW609
The AgustaWestland (now Leonardo) AW609, formerly the Bell/Agusta BA609, is a twin-engined tiltrotor VTOL aircraft with a configuration similar to that of the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey. It is capable of landing vertically like a helicopter while ...
tiltrotor, it would be certified under the FAR Part 23
The Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) are rules prescribed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) governing all aviation activities in the United States. The FARs comprise Title 14 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR). A wide variety o ...
commuter category, with industry standards for compliance
Compliance can mean:
Healthcare
* Compliance (medicine), a patient's (or doctor's) adherence to a recommended course of treatment
* Compliance (physiology), the tendency of a hollow organ to resist recoil toward its original dimensions (this is a ...
and elements of helicopters FAR Part 27.
Steep approach
Approach may refer to:
Aviation
*Visual approach
*Instrument approach
*Final approach
Music
* ''Approach'' (album), by Von Hertzen Brothers
* ''The Approach'', an album by I:Scintilla
Other uses
*Approach Beach, a gazetted beach in Ting Kau, Ho ...
es and departures would minimize noise
Noise is unwanted sound considered unpleasant, loud or disruptive to hearing. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrations through a medium, such as air or water. The difference arise ...
and airspace
Airspace is the portion of the atmosphere controlled by a country above its territory, including its territorial waters or, more generally, any specific three-dimensional portion of the atmosphere. It is not the same as aerospace, which is the ...
issues.[
Its single ]Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6
The Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 is a turboprop aircraft engine produced by Pratt & Whitney Canada.
Its design was started in 1958, it first ran in February 1960, first flew on 30 May 1961, entered service in 1964 and has been continuously upda ...
-67F turboshaft
A turboshaft engine is a form of gas turbine that is optimized to produce shaftpower rather than jet thrust. In concept, turboshaft engines are very similar to turbojets, with additional turbine expansion to extract heat energy from the exhaust ...
from the drives wingtip proprotors via gearboxes and shafts, with collective
A collective is a group of entities that share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together to achieve a common objective. Collectives can differ from cooperatives in that they are not necessarily focused upon an ...
and a electric tail fan for flight control
A conventional fixed-wing aircraft flight control system consists of flight control surfaces, the respective cockpit controls, connecting linkages, and the necessary operating mechanisms to control an aircraft's direction in flight. Aircraft e ...
s with fly-by-wire
Fly-by-wire (FBW) is a system that replaces the conventional manual flight controls of an aircraft with an electronic interface. The movements of flight controls are converted to electronic signals transmitted by wires, and flight control co ...
envelope protection.
The cabin is larger than a high-performance turboprop single like the TBM 930 with wide seats and enough leg room for tall passengers, and it would have landing skid
Landing is the last part of a flight, where a flying animal, aircraft, or spacecraft returns to the ground. When the flying object returns to water, the process is called alighting, although it is commonly called "landing", "touchdown" or ...
s not wheels.[
With a ]maximum takeoff weight
The maximum takeoff weight (MTOW) or maximum gross takeoff weight (MGTOW) or maximum takeoff mass (MTOM) of an aircraft is the maximum weight at which the pilot is allowed to attempt to take off, due to structural or other limits. The analogous ...
of and a useful load of for fuel and a payload
Payload is the object or the entity which is being carried by an aircraft or launch vehicle. Sometimes payload also refers to the carrying capacity of an aircraft or launch vehicle, usually measured in terms of weight. Depending on the nature of ...
of five passengers with overnight bags, its range would be at .
It would be sold for $3.5 million like a Bell 407GXP light helicopter but costs per mile will be halved: hourly costs are 50% higher but it is three times faster.
A larger and higher-performance Airbus AS-365N3+ helicopter is slower and more expensive at $10 million.
Specifications
See also
References
{{reflist
Proposed aircraft of the United States
Tiltwing aircraft