• Journal of Advanced Navigation Technology
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.201-209
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• 2024

This study investigates the operational facets of low-density urban air mobility (UAM) from an airline's perspective amid burgeoning concerns about urban congestion in megacities. UAM, employing electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) technology, emerges as a potential remedy to the challenges of traffic gridlock and environmental degradation. As the UAM market progresses from initial stages to maturity, tailored traffic control systems become paramount. Focused on the context of low-density environments during UAM's inception, this research scrutinizes operational frameworks, essential infrastructure, and likely scenarios. It aims to bolster the safety and efficiency of UAM operations by delving into the specifics of traffic control concepts designed for these unique settings. The study seeks to significantly contribute to optimizing UAM's initial phases, providing insights into crucial operational dynamics for a smoother integration of urban air mobility into contemporary urban landscapes.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.1
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• pp.18-31
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• 2018

Rotorcrafts have more severe crashworthiness conditions than fixed wing aircraft owing to VTOL and hovering. Recently, with the increasing demand for highly efficient transportation system, application of composite materials to aircraft structures is increasing. However, due to the characteristics of composite materials that are susceptible to impact and crash, demand to prove the crashworthiness of composite structures is also increasing. The purpose of present study is to derive the structural concept of composite subfloor for rotorcrafts and verify it. In order to design a crashworthy composite subfloor, the conceptual design of the testbed helicopter for the demonstration and the derivation of energy absorbing requirement were carried out, and the composite energy absorber was designed and verified. Finally, the testbed for the demonstration of a crashworthy composite structure was fabricated, and performed free drop test. It was confirmed that the test results meet the criteria for ensuring occupant survivability.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.59-66
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• 2022

In order to solve the problem of urban traffic congestion, Urban Air Mobility (UAM) concept using Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft has been gaining popularity, and many domestic and international studies are underway. However, since these aircraft inevitably fly over densely populated areas, it is essential to ensure safety, which starts with accurately analyzing the crash risk. In this paper, the locations and impact speeds of crash are computed using six degree-of-freedom simulations of an eVTOL aircraft in a fixed-wing mode. System malfunction was modeled by a sudden loss of thrust with control surfaces being stuck during cruise. Because most of these eVTOL aircraft are still under development, a methodology of constructing a six degree-of-freedom dynamics model from generic specification is also developed. The results show that the crash locations are highly concentrated right under the aircraft within a square that has an edge length similar to the cruise altitude. Speed distribution is more complicated because almost identical crash locations can be achieved by two very different paths resulting in a large variation in the speeds.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.42-51
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• 2022

An eVTOL aircraft, which is required to operate with low pollution/low noise in urban environments, mostly use battery-powered electric propulsion systems as power sources, not traditional propulsion systems such as reciprocating or turbine engines. Accordingly, certification preparation for the electric propulsion system and securing the safety of the electric propulsion system, are important issues. In the U.S., special technical standards equivalent to FAR Part 33 were issued to certify electric engines, and in Europe, various special conditions were established to certify electric propulsion systems. Thus, in Korea, the technical standards for the electric propulsion system for eVTOL aircraft must also be prepared in line with the U.S. and Europe. In this paper, SC E-19, the technical standard of the electric/hybrid propulsion system (EHPS) in special conditions, was analyzed. Additionally, securing the safety of the electric propulsion system of the aircraft are proposed, through the collaboration of SC E-19 technical standards with the existing aircraft safety evaluation procedure ARP 4761. Finally, through a case study of the Ehang 184 electric propulsion system, it has been confirmed that the proposed safety assurance method is applicable at the aircraft level.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.197-209
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• 2018

In this study, numerical analyses on Quad Tilt Rotor(QTR) are carried out to investigate the interference effect of components and effect of operating condition during forward flight. Actuator Surface Method(ASM) which is implemented in an open source CFD code, OpenFOAM, is used to calculate the flow field around QTR with high computational efficiency. The lift of the front and rear wing is found to increase or decrease depending on the rotation direction of the rotor. At the rear wing, the interference effects of the front and rear rotor appear as a combined manner. Performance change due to the phase difference is found to be insignificant. For both rotors, the locally higher thrust is generated by the blockage effect of the wing. The interference effect of wake from the front nacelle contributes to higher local thrust for the rear rotor compared to the front rotor. And it is observed that the amplitude of thrust oscillation can decrease depending on the phase difference between the rotors. Aerodynamic performances of both rotors and the entire aircraft were compared and analyzed for various operating conditions.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.568-573
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• 2018

UAV(Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is widely used in space information construction, agriculture, fisheries, weather observation, communication, and entertainment fields because they are cheaper and easier to operate than manned aircraft. In particular, UAV have attracted much attention due to the speed and cost of data acquisition in the field of spatial information construction. However, ortho image images produced using UAVs are distorted in buildings and forests. It is necessary to solve these problems in order to utilize the geospatial information field. In this study, fixed wing, rotary wing, vertical take off and landing type UAV were used to detect distortions of ortho image of UAV under various conditions, and various object areas such as construction site, urban area, and forest area were captured and analysed. Through the research, it was found that the redundancy of the unmanned aerial vehicle image is the biggest factor of the distortion phenomenon, and the higher the flight altitude, the less the distortion phenomenon. We also proposed a method to reduce distortion of orthoimage by lowering the resolution of original image using DTM (Digital Terrain Model) to improve distortion. Future high-quality unmanned aerial vehicles without distortions will contribute greatly to the application of UAV in the field of precision surveying.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.47 no.7
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• pp.469-478
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• 2019

Multirotor configurations such as VTOL and urban air mobility have been focused on today due to the high maneuverability. Aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of multirotor have much difference to those of a single rotor. In this study, a numerical analysis based on the free wake vortex lattice method is used for identifying the wake interaction effect. In order to compare the various configurations and operating conditions, the effects of the spacing between the rotors in hovering flight and the effects of the advancing ratio and the formation in forward flight are discussed. In the hovering flight, the unsteady loading of multirotor changes periodically and loading fluctuation increases as decreasing the spacing. It causes the variation in unsteady loading noise and the noise directivity pattern. In the forward flight, the difference in loading fluctuation and noise characteristics are observed according to the diamond and square formation of rotors. By comparing with results of single rotor analysis, multirotor configurations have different directivity pattern and amplitude of loading noise according to the location of each rotor. As a result, wake interaction effect becomes a highly important factor for aerodynamic and aeroacoustic analysis according to multirotor configurations and operating conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.75-84
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• 2021

The authors had presented two previous papers[1,2] on Helicopter/Rotorcraft develoment in Europe and US. Meanwhile, the next generation rotorcrafts, currently under development in US and Europe, have new configurations (tilt-rotor, coaxial, compound) of rotor-type vertical takeoff/landing rotorcrafts to overcome the disadvantages of traditional helicopters. For developing these new types of rotorcrafts, the upgraded conceptual design/comprehensive programs are required. In US and Europe, they are already developing new program tools with their technologies and database obtained during more than last half centuries. For us, many academia, research institutes and industrial engineers have experienced and developed core technologies on rotorcrafts (aerodynamics, structural analysis, flight dynamics, and noise analysis etc.) comparable to US and Europe during last couple of decades of developing helicopters and various configurations of rotorcrafts. In this paper, the pros and cons of conceptual design/comprehensive tools currently used in US and Europe have been summarized. Furthermore, the possibilities and problems to develope our own design and analysis tools have been studied.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.50 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2022

Wind tunnel test for a small scale electric ducted fan with a 104mm diameter was conducted to analyze the aerodynamic characteristics when it was used as a propulsion system of tilt-propeller UAV. Experimental conditions were derived from flight conditions of a sub-scaled OPPAV. Forces and moments of the ducted fan model were measured by a 6-axis balance and 3-dimensional wake vectors which could induce an aerodynamic influence in the vehicle were measured by 5-hole probes. Thrust and torque on hover and cruise conditions were measured and analyzed to drive out the operating conditions when it was applied in the sub-scaled OPPAV. On transition conditions, thrust keep its value with tilt angle variation below 40° and increase after that. But, sideforce increase constantly until 75°. The maximum axial velocity in the wake on hover and cruise conditions was around 60m/s and tangential velocity was around 12m/s. The position of the maximum axial velocity and vortex center move off the fan rotation center line as the tilt angle increases.