Discover Fold.
A challenge will arise when scaling the size and number of aircraft intended for urban air mobility (UAM).
The limited space reserved for UAM ground infrastructure will be at a premium as operations grow, requiring more compact aircraft designs. This is at odds with energy efficient flight which benefits from longer, high aspect ratio wings. To reconcile these opposing forces, Aerhart has developed and tested a folding wing architecture able to keep an aircraft’s footprint small, while increasing aspect ratio in flight. This is done passively without the use of a motorized actuator to reduce weight and maintenance and avoid diminishing returns on efficiency. Such functionality can improve range by 50% over an aircraft of equal footprint, connecting further points, or increasing the number of flights between closer ones. Core functionality has been shown with our technology demonstrator and development is underway on an unmanned aerial vehicle designed to introduce this technology to UAM
Energy Efficient Flight.
Fold employs passive actuation that does not require a motor, instead taking advantage of the environment to reconfigure for specific flight modes.
The reduced weight and complexity of passive actuation is used to develop high performance yet compact urban air mobility (UAM) vehicles.
Fold, the world’s first passively actuated folding wing.
