Xplorair

The Xplorair is a project of compact VTOL aircraft without rotating airfoil from aerospace engineer Michel Aguilar,[1] funded by the French Armed Forces procurement agency DGA and supported by various European aeronautics firms such as Dassault Systèmes, EADS Innovation Works, MBDA, Altran Technologies, Sogeti, Turbomeca, COMAT Aerospace and the Institut Pprime.

Announced in 2007, the project aimed to develop a UAV prototype scheduled for flight in 2017, followed by a single-seater personal air vehicle (PAV) whose commercialization could occur the decade after.

[2] The Xplorair is intended to be flown in the future above cities by anyone with a ground vehicle driver's license (thanks to a fully automated, SATS-like flight mode), but it has no wheels and does not function as a roadable aircraft.

Main characteristics of the Xplorair PX200:[1] In 2002, French aerospace engineer Michel Aguilar, then 52 years old, retired from DGA to work as a full-time independent contractor on his Xplorair project, a VTOL aircraft where the common rotating airfoils (like propellers, rotors or ducted fans) are replaced by a new type of small jet engine directly fitted within wing's body, the thermoreactor.

A consortium gathering Turbomeca, COMAT Aerospace and the Institut Pprime has been formed to evaluate the thermoreactor jet engine and develop the technology.

The exhaust gas follows the curved surface due to the Coandă effect, and the slipstream is diverted downcast, providing powered lift for VTOL operation.

While cruising, compressed air is injected as a radial jet at nose and leading edges, orthogonally to the ambient airflow, then covers the whole wetted area.

This technique has been tested for the first time in 1918 by French physicist Constantin Chilowsky on shells,[4] then various authors took over the idea to improve projectiles, including Henri Coandă for his own research on aerodynamics.

The Xplorair could cruise at low altitude above seawater or special highways that would be built for such personal air vehicles, in order to reduce the lift-induced drag and thus improve the fuel efficiency.