Abstract:
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles for the urban air mobility mission have seen increased interest in the past five years spurred by rapid improvements in battery and brush-less motor technology. Because of ease of implementation and perceived increase in safety, most designs utilize distributed propulsion through numerous directly-powered small lifting rotors or propellers. This investigation instead considers the largely-overlooked tandem rotor configuration, presents three notional designs, and considers the potential benefits and limitations of such a configuration for the urban air mobility role.