Orca eVTOL 救急医療航空機 by Soma Varga, Zsolt Koltai and Akos Matyus

Orca eVTOL 救急医療航空機 by Soma Varga, Zsolt Koltai and Akos Matyus is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2021 A' Design Award 銅賞 in 航空宇宙・航空機デザイン Competition Category.

銅航空機· 2021

Orca eVTOL 救急医療航空機

by Soma Varga, Zsolt Koltai and Akos Matyus

Client: Orca Aerospace

A' Design Award 銅賞 Winner in 航空機 Category

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The Design

About Orca eVTOL 救急医療航空機

Orca eVTOLは、電動垂直離着陸機能を備えた救急医療航空機である。パイロット1名で操縦し、3名を搭乗させることができ、機体はカーボンファイバー複合材で製作されている。リチウム系バッテリーを電源とする7基の独立した電動モーターが推進力を生み出し、安全性を高めている。翼幅は12.45メートル、全長は8.1メートル。タービンエンジンが暖機時間を必要とするのに対し、電動モーターは数秒で始動する。また、主翼による飛行は回転翼機よりも高い巡航速度を可能にし、患者をより早く治療へと届けることができる。

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award 銅賞

Orca eVTOL 救急医療航空機は、創造性、独創性、鋭い洞察力で際立つ傑出したデザインに授与される、高い権威をもつ評価である A' Design Award 銅賞の受賞作品です。銅賞の受賞作品は、十分に巧みで印象的なほど創造的な工芸品であり、デザイナーの豊富な経験、想像力、機知を裏づけています。Orca eVTOL 救急医療航空機は、高く評価され、称賛され、愛される品であり、顕著にプロフェッショナルで革新的であることが期待されます。この A' Design Award 銅賞を受賞したデザインは、芸術・科学・デザイン・技術のベストプラクティスを取り入れており、細部への配慮に優れています。Orca eVTOL 救急医療航空機は、ニーズを見事に満たし、欲求に触れ、感情を魅了し、好奇心を引きつけます。

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

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.
Team Members: Soma Varga
Ákos Matyus
Zsolt Koltai