Terrafugia TF-X Flying Formula

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Beyond the lovely fantasies of sci-fi until someone invents an anti-gravity device the two main poles of designing a flying machine are:
- As light as possible
- More penetrating in the air as possible, consistent with greater lift force.

The silhouette of a normal car is unlikely to satisfy these two conditions, which for returning to the root of the problem Terrafugia is a medium that must carry two or four people from one place to another passing through the sky and streets.
The optimization balance of the two needs is the goal to achieve,
and certainly favor one of the two penalizes the other.
But we must ask: what is the most beneficial aspect of the two?
It is definitely moving in the sky;
- Greater distance traveled per unit of time
- Higher speed
- Lower consumption / path.
In my opinion, should give priority to move in the sky where I think this vehicle will be used for at least 90% of the space to go.
In fact, no one would take it to move usually in an urban space taking a walk wtih a pair of wings and three engines in more.
I then used a glider fuselage that can accommodate two people and allow maximum penetration.
With this choice, you also get more space to fold the wings close to the body and more space to fold the blades of the engines of vertical takeoff.
The diameter of the rotors increases compared to the previous my solution:
https://grabcad.com/library/terrafugia-tf-x-concept-1
that was provided housing four person.
We must not forget that the maximum lifting capacity is required for vertical take-off, and is entrusted exclusively by the traction of the two rotors, that we know are not simple propellers but rotating wings. Therefore, consistent with the need to retreat the rotors to get into a garage, must have the maximum possible diameter.
The other choice is between three or four wheels.
I think that the three-wheeler solution is less bulky and less heavy and creates less resistance in air motion.
Moreover, even for moving on the road are more than enough.
This is demonstrated by Aptera choices:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBe7JXDTrFw
In fact I have to say that it would be desirable to have a collaboration between Terrafugia and Aptera, just add wings!

Credits:
I used the following models GrabCAD library:
The fuselage of the glider: https://grabcad.com/library/aptilla-glider
The Rotax 912: https://grabcad.com/library/aptilla-glider
The propeller: https://grabcad.com/library/3-blade-propeller
The turbofan: https://grabcad.com/library/turbo-prop
Seats: https://grabcad.com/library/sports-car-seat