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  • VTOL vehicle with Fan as propeller

    Rohanz21

    Member

    Updated: Oct 26, 2024
    Views: 1.0K
    Hello everyone, before you guys give any response let me frankly inform you all that i am a layman in mechanics so its a earnest request to all that please elaborate in layman's term 😀

    I have planned for a VTOL vehicle which will use high speed fans that will me mounted under the car will act as propeller. The thrust created by the fans should lift the vehicle up to a certain height(say 5 feet).

    After taking off vertically it should land again.

    Now what will be the detailed concepts and mechanisms of these operations?
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Replies

  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Aug 8, 2012

    Bump! Mechanical / Automobile engineers - we need your attention here 😀
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 8, 2012

    @The-Big_K

    Thanks a lot for initiating the discussion 😀
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Aug 8, 2012

    Please go through this thread. A Volkswagen concept car using what you suggest is doing a demo on the street.
    The principle is the same as used for Hovercrafts. Such a vehicle is called a ground reaction vehicle.
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 8, 2012

    Hello sir 😀

    I went through the video a week back. it was really amazing.Read the thread too just now.

    You wrote "Not particularly useful for normal road transport in my opinion." Any reason for that?
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Aug 8, 2012

    Rohanz21
    Hello sir 😀
    You wrote "Not particularly useful for normal road transport in my opinion." Any reason for that?
    Though friction losses will be small, air resistance still remains. Also the energy required to keep the vehicle afloat can be high. My concern is more with the environment.
    Most of the roads in the tropics are dusty. This sort of vehicle will kick up a dust storm, which may lead to zero visibility on the road and a major health hazard if a large number of these are on the road. This sort of vehicles are best for over water/marsh land travel, where other vehicles will not work and there is no dust.
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 8, 2012

    Agreed.Also water present during monsoon will cause similar problem.Isn't so?
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Aug 8, 2012

    Rohanz21
    Agreed.Also water present during monsoon will cause similar problem.Isn't so?
    Quite likely. Though a few of these may be useful as rescue vehicles during flooding.
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  • zaveri

    Member • Aug 8, 2012

    bioramani
    Though friction losses will be small, air resistance still remains. Also the energy required to keep the vehicle afloat can be high. My concern is more with the environment.
    Most of the roads in the tropics are dusty. This sort of vehicle will kick up a dust storm, which may lead to zero visibility on the road and a major health hazard if a large number of these are on the road. This sort of vehicles are best for over water/marsh land travel, where other vehicles will not work and there is no dust.
    which means that even if fans were to be eliminated and jet propulsion systems were to be used, the sand-storms would still be kicked-up.

    so in the end does this mean that operation of flying-craft is not feasible on normal dirt roads ?
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 9, 2012

    #-Link-Snipped-#

    Wouldn't jet propulsion system cause damage to nearby cars or environment?

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    Sir but what about that Volkswagen car of China? Doesn't it use a similar mechanism? Does the road and environment makes it feasible there?
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Aug 9, 2012

    Rohanz21
    #-Link-Snipped-#

    Wouldn't jet propulsion system cause damage to nearby cars or environment?

    #-Link-Snipped-#

    Sir but what about that Volkswagen car of China? Doesn't it use a similar mechanism? Does the road and environment makes it feasible there?
    The particular location where the demo took place does not seem to have much dust. I have great doubts about the feasibility of this kind of transport anywhere on dry land.
    Jet propulsion at this low level will be a strict no no.
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  • white_hat

    Member • Aug 9, 2012

    The biggest problem is going to be cornering, all others come afterwards.The thing will just float around, it will not take a turn as we want it to, once you get a considerable speed.
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    Instead why don't you work on small helicopters , most of the helicopters developed here in India is for military use.These will be of great use as ambulance , police patrol etc.
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  • white_hat

    Member • Aug 9, 2012

    bioramani
    The particular location where the demo took place does not seem to have much dust. I have great doubts about the feasibility of this kind of transport anywhere on dry land.
    Jet propulsion at this low level will be a strict no no.
    I think the volkswagen car is just computer graphics.
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  • zaveri

    Member • Aug 10, 2012

    Another reason why jet-propulsion would not be feasible is that , the fuel expenses would go up and so would the weight of the car.
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 10, 2012

    white_hat
    The biggest problem is going to be cornering, all others come afterwards.The thing will just float around, it will not take a turn as we want it to, once you get a considerable speed.
    .
    .
    Instead why don't you work on small helicopters , most of the helicopters developed here in India is for military use.These will be of great use as ambulance , police patrol etc.
    What exact problem will the vehicle face while cornering at high speed? Suppose if there is way to reduce thrust on the propellers wouldn't it turn ? For example the vehicle is moving forward and we want to give it a right turn.if one can reduce the thrust on the propellers that is present on the front right side under the car wouldn't it take right turn?
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  • white_hat

    Member • Aug 10, 2012

    Rohanz21
    What exact problem will the vehicle face while cornering at high speed? Suppose if there is way to reduce thrust on the propellers wouldn't it turn ? For example the vehicle is moving forward and we want to give it a right turn.if one can reduce the thrust on the propellers that is present on the front right side under the car wouldn't it take right turn?
    It is not that easy as it sounds.Check out videos of hovercrafts. Due to the high momentum the vehicle will just keep on moving in the forward direction, it will turn eventually but will not take the path we want it to take.
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  • zaveri

    Member • Aug 10, 2012

    Rohanz21
    What exact problem will the vehicle face while cornering at high speed? Suppose if there is way to reduce thrust on the propellers wouldn't it turn ? For example the vehicle is moving forward and we want to give it a right turn.if one can reduce the thrust on the propellers that is present on the front right side under the car wouldn't it take right turn?
    In that case, we will end up building an air-craft and not a car.
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  • marvin

    Member • Aug 10, 2012

    zaveri
    In that case, we will end up building an air-craft and not a car.
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 22, 2012

    @ All

    I was asking a few persons about the feasibility of using the fan as propeller but they told that fan only by themselves wouldn't be able to create enough thrust to lift the car.What you all say about this?
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  • Ramani Aswath

    Member • Aug 22, 2012

    It is just semantics. A fan propels air. Fans are designed to move a lot of air at low static pressures. A propeller moves air at a high static pressure. In hovercrafts a fan is sufficient to provide the lift.
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 23, 2012

    Okay. Could some centrifugal fans like this would be able to lift the vehicle?

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  • gohm

    Member • Aug 23, 2012

    Here's a recent article on a vehicle-
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 23, 2012

    Wow really that's awesome 😀

    Was also reading about Volkswagen Aqua Concept Car

    <a href="https://www.carbodydesign.com/2011/05/volkswagen-aqua-concept/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Volkswagen Aqua Concept - Car Body Design</a>
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  • Rohanz21

    Member • Aug 23, 2012

    #-Link-Snipped-#

    So what you say about the fans lifting a car.Feasible?
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