A project to create innovative unmanned aerial vehicles with cyclic propulsion systems. Continued.

Work has begun on the creation of a six-seat aerial vehicle with a hybrid propulsion system. As we reported at the end of December 2020, the ARCO project office completed a design and feasibility study for the creation of a venture to produce innovative UAVs with cyclic propulsion systems. The customer for this project was the Advanced Research Foundation. (FPI, Moscow,https://fpi.gov.ru/about/).As part of the Advanced Research Foundation's Cyclone project, work has started on the Cyclocar airmobile with cyclic propulsion systems. The estimated carrying capacity of the vehicle is 600 kilograms, and the passenger capacity is 6 people. IT SB RAS acts as the head executor of the project.

In the course of the first stage of work the preliminary design of the machine was made, as well as ground tests of the cyclic propulsor (cyclic rotor) with diameter of 1.5 m were carried out. Estimated dimensions of the Cyclocar with a payload of 600 kilograms are 6.2 x 6 meters, maximum speed up to 250 kilometers per hour, range up to 500 kilometers. Besides compact dimensions in comparison with helicopters, the distinctive feature of the vehicle is its ability to land on inclined surfaces (up to 30 degrees) and to moor to vertical surfaces.

Cyclocar will receive a sequential hybrid propulsion system (HPS) of Russian production, which will allow adapting it to a particular customer. The aircraft will be equipped with a power unit based on a gasoline rotary piston engine or a more powerful variant of the GCU based on a turboshaft engine.

In 2020, the first flight of the 60-kilogram Cyclone developed within the framework of the Cyclone project took place, on which the basic principles, algorithms and control mechanisms, the automatic control system, and the aerodynamic layout were perfected. Flights of the first full-size Cyclocar prototype equipped with an all-electric propulsion system are scheduled for 2022.