Pilotless hybrid on the horizon

They take-off and land vertically, and they travel through the air at high speed. Perhaps we will see these unmanned, flying objects over Trondheim at some time in the future. Photo: NTNU Info/Bård Gimnes, Photomontage: Geir Olav Glomstad

A brand new craft will soon be whooshing over a roof near you. And it is not a UFO.

By Tore Hugubakken

His smile got broader and broader as he realized what he had
managed to do. Vegard Evjen Hovstein had long ago given up logging how many working hours he sat in his office, buried beneath piles of scientific literature or staring at his computer screen. At last he was enjoying the experience of having the simulation models on his screen function just as they were supposed to. One day in May, this newly qualified engineer at NTNU posted the promising results to the rest of the lads in the recently started SiMiCon company. Afterwards, stretching his weary body, a thought suddenly occurred to him: perhaps he was contributing to an ever-so-small aviation adventure in modern Norway.

Hybrid
The Americans have not managed it yet. Neither have the Russians or the Japanese, nor, for that matter, anyone else who is working on flying techniques. Nobody has managed to design a craft that can combine optimal helicopter qualities with the characteristics of a jet plane. Norwegian researchers and product developers at the SiMiCon company now believe that they have been able to develop a new technological concept capable of taking off and landing vertically, as well as moving at high speed. This is a technology that will help to revolutionize pilotless aircraft of the future.
Existing pilotless aircraft (dubbed UAV – Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are not equipped with a technology that can provide both vertical take-off and also high airspeed. They also lack the technology that could make it possible to fly directly upwards from the ground. As a result, they are dependent on launch ramps or ordinary airstrips. Thus they cannot be launched from just anywhere. Existing UAVs are also incapable of controlling their own landings as conventional aircraft can, but have to be equipped with mini-parachutes. They are often destroyed during landing. Even so, the craft, as they function today, are frequently used, especially for military purposes; during the Gulf War and in Kosovo for example. When equipped with different combinations of sensors, they are capable of flying over areas in which military activities are taking place, and of sending simultaneous information back to the operations headquarters.

This is what the craft looks like in its prototype form. Model-maker Pål Hagh Sandberg has made a test model which is a metre and a half wide and that weighs five kilos. The final, circular version will be four and a half metres wide and will weigh half a tonne. Photo: Anita Arntzen

Test model
– Just waiting for the wind.
Model-maker Pål Hagh Sandberg lets the control columns rest patiently between his thumbs while he waits for the strong wind to drop. In front of him, on this lovely summer night outside his home at Lørenskog, there is a model-like craft, one and a half metres in diameter and weighing about 5 kilos. Three wise men from the SiMiCon A/S company stand around Pål, ready to capture the event on their video cameras. They are Geir Olav Glomstad, who first had the idea for this craft, and two men from NTNU in Trondheim: Ragnvald Otterlei and Kåre Rygg Johnsen. The three of them hired model-maker Sandberg to build, develop and test the simulation models which have been designed by Vegard Evjen Hovstein at NTNU’s Department of Engineering Cybernetics.
Hovstein’s desk analyses prove that they do work in the real world. The craft behaves like a helicopter during take-off and landing. It can also be manoeuvred in the air.
The pilotless vehicle is the latest of three successive test models which have been built in order to test one of many different sets of theories. This technology has been labelled SRC (SiMiCon Rotor Craft), but it is far from finished. As a result, at this stage the model has to be protected against rain and strong winds.
Fortunately the wind dies down, and the model-maker manoeuvres the vehicle around in the air, finally bringing it gently back to land again. If everything goes according to plan a prototype will be ready in the near future.

Wandering rotor centre
The SiMiCon version of the pilotless, remote-controlled vehicle is based on a simplification of complex helicopter principles, among other things. Even so, the model is able to perform vertical take-offs and can manoeuvre well at low speed. A jet motor provides thrust at high speed. For those who are interested in more detailed information: an ordinary helicopter creates lift-off by means of rotors that are connected to a complex rotor-head. SiMiCon Rotor Craft has abandoned this rotor-head completely, even though it lies at the heart of the traditional steering system. In the present case it is by moving the centre of rotation in relation to the encapsulated area in the circular load-bearing wing that controls the steering. Even though these manoeuvring principles are very different, the result is the same: controlled take-off energy and the ability to manoeuvre in every direction. Up to now, no aircraft model in which it is possible to vary the rotor centre in this way has been constructed. SiMiCon has patented this technology. By dropping the rotor-head, they also dispensed with a complex mechanical device that is vulnerable to failure and difficult to maintain.
As a result of the distinctive character of traditional rotor systems, helicopters cannot fly at high speed. The SRC-technology eliminates such a limitation. When the vehicle has taken off, the rotor blades are pulled into a circular wing which bears the craft forwards at extremely high speed. When the pilotless plane is ready to take-off, land, hover, or move very slowly, the rotor system can be activated.
– The safest and easiest way to switch from low to high aviation speed is to remove the rotors from the air flow, says Ragnvald Otterlei.

Aim
In contrast to the UAVs of today, which are mostly used for military purposes, SiMiCon is in search of a civilian market. The pilotless craft can, for instance, be used to monitor the coast when oil-spill disasters take place, or to survey areas where helicopters cannot be used. It is too early for the enthusiasts at SiMiCon to say when the first full-scale UAV, weighing half a tonne, and measuring four and a half metres in width, will be ready for take-off. Just like all other researchers and product designer, they are looking for interested parties and teamwork partners. So far they have been funded by the Research Council, the Norwegian Fund for Trade and Industry, the Regional Development Fund, and the National Bureau for Inventor Guidance, among others. The military, along with manufacturing industries, have signalled their interest in this pioneering craft. Vegard Evjen Hovstein is the only full-time member of staff at SiMiCon. The other staff members are working on the vehicle project alongside their full-time jobs. In spite of this, the enthusiasts firmly believe that in a few years’ time they will be able to point in to the sky at an unmanned craft and correct people: ‘No, that’s not a UFO, it’s a UAV’.

Contact: Ragnvald Otterlei
Tel: +47 32 72 83 70
Email: ragnvald@simicon.no