Fly-Drive Vehicle With Foldable Propeller Blades
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current flying vehicles are not suitable for road traffic due to size, maneuverability, and safety requirements, while conventional cars are not equipped for flying, making it challenging to create a hybrid vehicle that meets both air and road safety standards and can easily switch between modes.
Innovation Solution
The design incorporates a propeller with foldable blades and a common drive system using two engines, where the propeller and wheels share propulsion power, with a specific gear arrangement to optimize space and efficiency, allowing the vehicle to efficiently transition between flying and road riding conditions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a vehicle is designed to fly in air, then it can operate in aerial environment, but it cannot meet road traffic requirements for size, maneuverability, and safety
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle employs dynamic configuration changes through foldable propeller blades that can be stowed during road travel and deployed for flight. The drive system dynamically switches between wheel-driven mode for road traffic and propeller-driven mode for aerial operation, allowing the vehicle to adapt its characteristics to meet different operational requirements and safety standards.
Solution Approach 2:
The vehicle integrates multiple functions into a single platform: it can operate as both a road vehicle and an aerial vehicle. The common drive system serves dual purposes by providing power to wheels during road travel and to the propeller during flight, making the vehicle universally applicable to both terrestrial and aerial environments while meeting respective safety requirements.
2Reliability
If a vehicle is designed as a conventional car for road traffic, then it meets road safety requirements, but it cannot fly in air
Solution Approach 1:
The vehicle segments its propulsion system into separate functional components: a common drive system for road travel and a propeller assembly for aerial operation. The propeller blades are segmented to be foldable and storable, allowing the road vehicle configuration to maintain safety compliance while enabling aerial capability when needed.
Solution Approach 2:
The propeller assembly is nested within the vehicle structure in a stowed configuration during road travel. The foldable propeller blades can be stored within the vehicle body or retracted into a compact position, allowing the aerial propulsion system to be integrated into the road vehicle without compromising road safety or increasing road travel complexity.
3Productivity
If separate drive systems are used for flying and road riding, then each system can be optimized for its function, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the drive systems by using a common propulsion source that powers both the wheels for road travel and the propeller for aerial operation. This unified drive system reduces overall complexity compared to having completely separate systems, while still allowing each function to be optimized through selective power distribution and configuration changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The common drive system serves universal purposes by providing propulsion for both road and air operations. This multi-functional approach eliminates the need for duplicate drive systems, reducing device complexity while maintaining functional optimization for both operating modes through intelligent power management and configuration switching.
4Productivity
If propeller blades are fixed in position, then flight propulsion is simple, but the vehicle cannot safely travel on roads
Solution Approach 1:
The propeller blades are designed to be dynamic rather than fixed, capable of folding and stowing during road travel to eliminate safety hazards. During flight operations, the blades deploy to their operational position for efficient propulsion. This dynamic configuration allows the system to maintain flight propulsion efficiency while removing the harmful exposure of propeller blades during road travel.
Solution Approach 2:
The propeller blades are extracted from their fixed position and made movable, allowing them to be removed from the hazardous exposure position during road travel. The foldable design enables the blades to be taken out of the operational configuration and stored in a safe configuration, eliminating the road safety hazard while preserving flight capability.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution enables a hybrid vehicle to safely and efficiently operate in both air and road environments, meeting all necessary safety and performance requirements, with the foldable propeller blades and shared drive system ensuring safe road travel and efficient flight capabilities.
Implementation Method 1
The flying propulsion means comprise an engine-driven propeller
Implementation Method 2
The propeller has foldable blades, so that the propeller can be converted from an operative configuration in which the blades extend substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation to a stowed configuration in which the blades are directed substantially parallel to the axis of rotation
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 2A
Figure 2B
AI summary
A fly/drive vehicle (1) has a road riding condition and a flying condition, and is easily convertible between the road riding condition and the flying condition. The vehicle comprises a body (10) with a passenger compartment (11) and a drive compartment (12), at least one steered wheel (13) and at least one driven wheel (14), and a propulsion propeller (20). The propulsion propeller has a central propeller base (21) projecting outside a longitudinal end of the vehicle, and two propeller blades (22) hinged to the central base (21). In the flying condition, the propeller blades (22) are in an operative spread-out position, in which they extend substantially in line with each other substantially perpendicular to the propeller's rotation axis. In the road riding condition, the propeller blades (22) are hinged about substantially vertical hinge axes to be directed more parallel to the longitudinal direction.