Bronze Fly · 2021
Orca eVTOL Nødlæge-luftfartøj
by Soma Varga, Zsolt Koltai and Akos Matyus
- A' Design Award i Bronze 2021 in Fly
- CLIENT: Orca Aerospace
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 584,797
- Verification code BAE76C8B25 · Verify this award
Colors
About Orca eVTOL Nødlæge-luftfartøj
Orca eVTOL er et akutmedicinsk luftfartøj med elektrisk lodret start- og landingsevne. Luftfartøjet, der styres af én pilot, kan transportere tre personer og er bygget af kompositmaterialer i kulfiber. Syv uafhængige elektriske motorer, drevet af litiumbaserede batterier, sørger for fremdrift og øger sikkerheden. Vingefanget er 12,45 meter, og længden er 8,1 meter. Elektriske motorer starter på få sekunder, mens turbinemotorer kræver opvarmningstid. Vingeflyvning muliggør en højere marchhastighed end helikoptere, hvilket betyder, at patienter når frem til behandling hurtigere.
About the A' Design Award i Bronze
Orca eVTOL Nødlæge-luftfartøj er vinder af A' Design Award i Bronze, en højt prestigefyldt anerkendelse, der tildeles enestående designs, som udmærker sig ved kreativitet, opfindsomhed og skarpsindighed. Bronzevinderne er rigeligt dygtige og påfaldende kreative artefakter, der bekræfter deres designeres store erfaring, fantasi og snilde. Orca eVTOL Nødlæge-luftfartøj forventes at være en højt estimeret, beundret og kær genstand, der er bemærkelsesværdigt professionel og innovativ. Dette design, der har vundet A' Design Award i Bronze, indarbejder bedste praksis inden for kunst, videnskab, design og teknologi og er fremragende på grund af sin sans for detaljer. Orca eVTOL Nødlæge-luftfartøj tilfredsstiller pragtfuldt behov, rører længsler, charmerer følelser og appellerer til nysgerrigheden.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The Orca eVTOL is a vertical take-off and landing aerial vehicle equipped with electric propulsion. The single piloted Orca has been designed to compeete with current emergency rotorcraft by transporing patients at higher speed, lower operational cost and incerased safety due the installed 7 independent electric engines and advanced aerodynamic design. The possible range of the carbon composite aircraft with three person on board and with current battery technology is up to 120 km.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- The wingspan of the Orca is 12.45m, its length is 8.1m with an overall heigth of 2.4m.
- Tags
- VTOL, electric propulsion, emergency medical services, aircraft, battery propulsion
- Production Technology
- The proposed concept uses high performance carbon fibre composite materials, common in aerospace industry. The integrated electric motors have already a proven background in motorsport and run entirely on lithium-based batteries.
- Design Challenge
- The most challenging part of a VTOL design is to combine design methodology of fixed wing aircraft and rotorcraft, two different regimes of aviation that are well documented when investigated separately but is still full of unknown obstacles when treated as a single regime. Having to run engines effectively while hover and during levelled cruise flight introduced energy management challenges.
- Research
- The design of the Orca eVTOL started with setting the flight performance requirements such as minimum range, payload, and cruise flight speed. All these emerged from a typical flight profile for a rotorcraft used in emergency medical operations. After deriving the strict performance requirements, a major effort was made to design an easy to operate yet safe aircraft architecture. This resulted in a so called three-surface aircraft with top positioned main wing and with axisymmetric fuselage.
- Inspiration
- The concept of the Orca electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL) was designed to challenge the current rotorcraft market used in the emergency medical services. With continuously advancing battery and electric engine technology, the concepts of eVTOLs became feasible. In the airborne medical services, introducing electric propulsion and winged aircraft concepts, the response time can be significantly reduced. All this to help avoid fatal outcomes of such situations.
- Project Duration
- The time required to design the Orca eVTOL from the first sketches to this stage covered six months. The design team has its headquarter in Pécs, Hungary.
- Operation Flow
- When alarming the rotorcraft medical services, the gas turbine engines of the rotorcraft have a warm-up time. This can mean up to 3 min before the take-off. With electric engines all this is reduced to seconds only. Due to the flight speed limits placed on the helicopter’s rotating blades, the wing borne flight of the Orca allows a higher maximum cruise speed. All these reduce the time form the emergency call until the treatment of the patients and the transfer flight back to the hospital.
- Patents
- Patented. Patent No.: 008215388-0001 issued by the European Union Intellectual Property Office. Patent holders: Soma Ádám Varga, Zsolt Koltai, Ákos Matyus.
