What is the primary breakthrough here?

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There is a LOT to learn about this counter-intuitive design, but the most obvious thing about Synergy is its distinctive tail configuration.  It’s a technology that could give any well-designed airplane a fundamental advantage.

Our underlying breakthrough is our founder’s patented technology for high span efficiency through stability: using the tails to help the wings make less drag.

Every airplane has a wingspan, and a weight.  More span efficiency means that ‘a given wingspan’ will work better at a given weight, up to 32% better than a normal wing. Unlike any normal wing, including tailless ‘flying wings’, the Synergy configuration can reach the minimum induced drag for its wingspan and weight.

As weight increases, such as for an electric aircraft, more payload, or longer endurance, the advantage of high span efficiency increases exponentially. It especially helps planes that have to weigh more, or fly higher, or slower, or maneuver efficiently under G-force loading, such as airliners and racing planes.

Synergy’s Double Boxtail (DBT) configuration (US8657226, 9545993) is a broad technology that benefits slower and heavier airplanes even more than it does ours.

Yet because this arrangement is more suitable for high speed flight than longer wings are, DBT is also the right starting point for using other, more technical drag-reducing technologies, such as laminar flow, wake propulsion, pressure thrust, and boundary layer control. In fact, it is easily the best configuration to allow a car-like passenger plane…of affordable horsepower…to reach the previously unattainable speeds where these initiatives bring exponential new benefits.

Our name is not a buzzword. When taken together synergistically, these drag reduction technologies improve aerodynamic performance to the Gabrielli-von Karman limit, a benchmark that is anywhere from two to fifteen times as efficient as typical powered aircraft, depending on their speed. No manned airplane has ever come remotely close to such fuel-efficient high performance in this speed and weight category.

Here are some of the benefits of the unique new DBT technology, as it applies to our first aircraft in particular.

  1. The Synergy configuration lowers induced drag (the drag due to lift) to the theoretical limit. Its 3-D span efficiency is 1.46 times that of a normal wing of the same span, in a strong, compact form more capable of higher speeds than a long, glider-style wing. Lowering the induced drag of an airplane provides benefits in climb, at lower speeds, when racing or maneuvering, at higher weights, and at higher altitudes.
  2. The Synergy configuration eliminates complexity because none of our simple, seamless flight surfaces have any controls or spanwise gaps in them. Two moving surfaces provide a majority of flight control. Like a flying wing (which is a less efficient configuration than DBT), pitch and roll controls are combined. We don’t have separate elevators and ailerons; our two elevons are just simple, one-piece airfoils, supported at both ends and rotated for control. (Thanks to its natural turn coordination, Synergy’s twin, V-tail-mounted rudders are rarely required in flight, but yes, we have (two) rudders on the full size aircraft!) Reduced complexity translates directly into reduced weight and reduced cost.
    The 25% scale model doesn't even have rudders. Two simple surfaces provide fully coordinated turn control.

    The 25% scale model doesn’t even have rudders. Two simple surfaces provide fully coordinated turn control.

  3. The weight distribution of the structure is inherently ideal for keeping the structural costs down and the balance right. When flown solo and light, from the front seat, the balance provides nimble handling. As the aircraft gains more people or payload, it remains in proper balance and increases in stability. At maximum weights all remaining payload is carried right on the CG itself, and the aircraft achieves its most stable configuration. (Many airplanes suffer from the exact opposite condition as they get heavier: less stable, less safe.)
  4. Laminar flow and high span efficiency allows a bigger wing in comparison to typical high-performance designs. Providing increased fuel storage and slower landings, the wings can be stronger and stiffer for a given span loading. The twisting tendency of a swept wing is balanced out of the system under G-loading by an always-proportionate, opposing downforce from the tails.
  5. The DBT configuration creates a (patented) novel method for the prevention of stalls, and many DBT aircraft exhibit pre-stall behavior similar to the canard configuration. Synergy employs conventional stall prevention, in that its controls can provide full authority without ever creating excessive wing angle of attack. In other words, the aircraft won’t even stall at all! However, we’ve tested stall behaviors anyway, with controls set to allow that authority, and discovered another amazing benefit: recovery from intentional stalls is instantaneous and without altitude loss,  due to the large elevons becoming additional flap-like wing area (and, wing airflow control devices !) when commanded to lower the nose. Several versions of Synergy also show promising control behaviors during intentional ‘deep stall descent’ at relatively low vertical speeds. Total control of flightpath and attitude during fully stalled flight, with instantaneous normal flight recovery on command, has been demonstrated in a range of conditions. Certification of such potential requires that every possible combination of conditions be tested. We will not be configuring to allow intentional stalls or deep stall control potential until it has been exhaustively refined in full scale flight test. We do intend to offer a vehicle that has proven to be basically incapable of stall/spin departures from controlled level flight.
  6. The volume of air that is progressively displaced by Synergy in flight changes smoothly along its length in a way that properly matches an optimum ‘body of revolution’ shape in its speed range. This objective, called ‘subsonic area ruling‘, is quite different than the area ruling used for supersonic aircraft. Its objective is to promote stable near-field pressure gradients in all phases of flight, drastically reducing the true source of catch-all “interference drag” and turbulence. Normally the esoteric benefits of pressure field tailoring at subsonic airspeeds are lost before they can be seen, let alone studied, because of high turbulence in the fuselage region, or because of mistakenly applying Whitcomb’s area rule to a subsonic airplane. Thus, today’s conventional wisdom tends to ignore subsonic volumetric tailoring entirely. (Nature, however, doesn’t, and this is part of the reason we can often accurately associate high efficiency with the volumetrically-tailored beauty of fast marine life and birds.)
  7. The Synergy DBT configuration exhibits superior handling at all speeds, including ideal turn coordination. Most aircraft require a vertical tail and/or rudder input to counter adverse yaw. Synergy carves turns like a finely tuned motorcycle.
  8. The DBT configuration creates a smoother ride in turbulence, and a noticeably more stable platform overall, thanks to moderate wing sweep and effective ‘decalage.’ Synergy’s remarkable stability provides the opposite of a ‘short-coupled’ aircraft. Like a strong man with his hands and feet wedged into the corners of a doorway, Synergy intentionally leverages against the atmosphere with every flight surface, despite having a wing planform that doesn’t, technically, even require tails (!) This stability actually increases as the angle of attack is increased, which is opposite to many aircraft and highly beneficial.IMG_5756
  9. Synergy’s double boxtail configuration creates constructive, beneficial wing-tail interaction, rather than (destructive) “biplane interference”, allowing wing and tail to cooperate together for lower drag. In addition, all airfoil surfaces continue the low pressure or high pressure assignment of the surface  adjacent to it, virtually eliminating the famous interference drag problem common to box wing designs. Every wingtip or stabilizer tip is a drag source on an airplane. There are no wingtips on Synergy.Synergy cfd example
  10.  Pilots and passengers  can see in every direction, and the jet-like nose allows all kinds of doors and nose openings to be used for passengers, cargo, and medical access purposes.

Synergy v26 concept kVarious DBT models have been making the above obvious for some time. Wanna see it fly?

Presently, Synergy Prime, Synergy derivatives, and other DBT aircraft designs are being developed and studied by governments, industry, hobbyists, and universities. A large, fast aircraft is required to achieve the size/speed regime where our (equally valuable) high speed drag reduction technologies make economical on-demand regional transportation possible, but it’s truly exciting that these many DBT benefits typically result in beautiful, well-mannered aircraft that are a joy to fly.

 

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