Electric VTOL Aircraft Design: Theory and Practice Online

• Introduction
• Why eVTOL? Why now? A brief history
• State-of-the-art in aircraft, battery, and motor
• Single vs. distributed propulsion
• Sizing an example eVTOL
• The connection to infrastructure
• Rotor aeromechanics
• VTOL aircraft
  • Basic aerodynamics and performance
  • Rotors vs. propellers vs. prop-rotors
  • Coaxial and shrouded rotors
  • Blade structural dynamics and loads
  • eVTOL controls and trim
  • Example Quadrotor and Tiltrotor
• Electric power
  • Power architecture
  • Brushless permanent magnet motors
  • Engine-generator hybrid
  • Lithium ion and Sulfur batteries
  • PEM fuel cells and hydrogen storage

Sizing Advanced Battery Systems for eVTOL Application. Joshua Stewart, Principal Power Systems Engineer, BAE Systems

• Describe battery operations and management
• Fundamentals of safe management and control
• Detail elements of battery packaging
• Discuss battery modeling
• Relate electrical and thermal elements to basic first principles
• Detail how systems are sized
• Assess battery performance (example)
  • Power
  • Energy
  • Size
  • Weight
  • Life
  • Cost
• Review development standards and testing

Anubhav Datta is a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center (AGRC) and an Associate Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park. He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering from Maryland. He re-joined AGRC as faculty in 2016 after nine years at the U. S. Army Aviation Development Directorate (ADD) at NASA Ames Research Center. At Maryland, Datta and his students are focused on future vertical lift barriers through Mach-scale wind-tunnel tests and HPC-based high-fidelity simulations. The research conducted by Datta and his colleagues have led to new fields in VTOL such as Mars Helicopter (2000), CFD/CA (2004), and eVTOL (2012). Over the years his work has been recognized by the VFS Grover E. Bell and Alfred Gessow Awards, NASA Technical Excellence in Publications Award, and U.S. Army and NASA Group Achievement Awards. Datta is the founder and inaugural chair of the VFS eVTOL Technical Committee, Chair of the AIAA Structural Dynamics Sub-committee on Conferences, and Associate Editor of the Journal of the AHS.






Joshua Stewart is a Principal Power Systems Engineer at BAE Systems and a member of the VFS. He has been working in the aerospace industry for over 10 years. Over the last 5 years, Josh has been a technical leader in the development of high-power, high-voltage battery systems for aircraft propulsion at BAE Systems. Josh is involved with the analysis and development of electric and hybrid electric aircraft propulsion systems, including Li-Ion battery storage, high-fidelity battery management systems, high voltage power distribution, motor drives and cables. He has played a critical role in the development of aircraft propulsion solutions for CTOL and eVTOL aircraft. With a strong background in flight-critical avionics and energy storage for ground transit, Josh has been able to apply a broad systems approach to the design of battery systems, including design for thermal runaway propagation and containment. He holds a B.S. degree from Binghamton University and a M.S. degree from Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Mechanical Engineering.






Michael Ricci is the Vice President of Engineering, LaunchPoint Technologies, and the driving force behind LaunchPoint Technologies “Propulsion By Wire” electric aircraft propulsion effort and spent the last 6 years as PI on a number of projects to develop electric aircraft propulsion technologies. These projects have included the development of highly efficient and powerful dual halbach array motors, high specific power wide bandgap semiconductor motor drives, and hybrid-electric gen-sets and bus power management systems. Applications have included HALE vehicles, helicopter electric tail rotors, multi-rotors, and eVTOL vehicles. During Mike’s 17 year tenure at LaunchPoint Technologies he has worked on flywheel energy storage, implantable heart assist pumps, medical oxygen concentrators, engine valve actuators, and a magnetically levitated freight transportation system. Prior to joining LaunchPoint, Mr. Ricci worked as a mechanical engineer with Spectra F/X, a theme park engineering company, where he served as Project Engineer on several very large custom systems with high cycle rates, intimate man-machine interfaces, and high human-safety concerns.

James Baeder is a member of the Alfred Gessow Rotorcraft Center as a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at the University of Maryland at College Park. He is currently the Samuel P. Langley Distinguished Professor at the National Institute for Aerospace. He holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Stanford University. He joined the AGRC in 1993 after nine years at AFDD. His research interests are in developing and applying Computational Fluid Dynamic methods to better understand rotor aerodynamics, acoustics and dynamics. He is a pioneer in the development of high-fidelity CFD and aeroacoustic methods and tools for rotorcraft. Currently he is focused on the development of improved CFD algorithms on GPGPU technology, to: capture the details of laminar/turbulent transition; dynamic stall; as well as tip vortex formation, convection and interaction with other surfaces including fuselages, towers or the ground and including adjoint capabilities. Dr. Baeder's research has been funded by Excelon, NASA Ames and Langley, the Army Aeroflightdynamics Directorate, the Army Research Office, the National Rotorcraft Technology Center, NAVAIR and DARPA, with support from the various helicopter companies. Dr. Baeder is a Technical Fellow of the Vertical Flight Society, member of the Acoustics Technical Committee (1996-present), member of the Aerodynamics and Propulsion Area Committee, and Chairs the Innovation and Commercialization Committee of the Business Network for Offshore Wind as well as the National Offshore Wind Innovation Center.

Dr. James Wang has over 30 years of experience in aerospace and high-tech industries. He is an internationally renowned expert in eVTOL aircraft and advanced air mobility. In 2013, WIRED Magazine named Dr. Wang “The Steve Jobs of Rotorcraft” for his ability to think “outside the box” and pushing the transportation technology boundaries for inventing and designing the AgustaWestland Project Zero, the world’s first all-electric VTOL technology demonstrator aircraft. Dr. Wang has held many executive leadership positions, including as Senior Vice President of Marketing and Vice President of R&D at Leonardo Helicopters; led Strategic Sales and worked on numerous helicopter designs at Sikorsky Aircraft. He is the founder of Vtolwerke LLC which provides consulting services in advanced air mobility, eVTOL aircraft designing and problem solving, product development strategizing, and due diligence studies. Dr. Wang is currently a full professor teaching aircraft and eVTOL design.

Dr. Wang received his Bachelor’s degrees in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering and in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from M.I.T., and a Master’s and PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland. After completing his PhD, Dr. Wang started his career at Sikorsky Aircraft, where he was known as one of the most energetic and prolific engineers and managers; he contributed greatly to the Comanche, Black Hawk, Naval Hawk, S-92 and the Variable Diameter Tiltrotor programs.