CarterCopter Aviation Technologies
 
4-Place PAV CH-150 Heliplane CarterCopter Technology Demonstrator CarterGyro Demonstrator Trainer Heliplane Hydrablaster CH-45 Heliplane Mu-1 Crew Photo
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Carter Aviation Technologies is a research and development company, pioneering new aviation concepts. Our primary focus is the slowed-rotor compound aircraft, a vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that uses the rotor for takeoff and landing, and a small, efficient wing for high speed flight, up to 500 mph, all with much less complexity than a tilt-rotor or other vectored thrust vehicle. We successfully demonstrated the slowed rotor concept with the CarterCopter Technology Demonstrator (CCTD), the first and only aircraft to reach mu-1 (more info).

License Agreement with AAI

Carter Aviation Technologies LLC (Carter) of Wichita Falls, TX is announcing that they have completed negotiations with AAI Corporation, an operating unit of Textron Systems, a Textron Inc. company, of Hunt Valley, MD on an exclusive licensing agreement for Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) using Carter's revolutionary Slowed Rotor/Compound (SR/C) Aircraft Technology - a combination of rotorcraft and fixed-wing aerodynamics. The 40-year exclusive agreement covers all UAS programs worldwide.

For more information, read the full press release:
2009-11-17 Carter Signs UAS License Agreement with AAI

 

This Month at Carter
2010-02-04

  • Continued work on the 4-Place PAV Prototype.
    • Continued with the wiring.
    • Completed the baffling & installed 2 cooling fans.
    • Completed a new tilting mast and test fixture. We began to test the mast, and had a slight failure of a shear web bond at a vertical lift of 6810 lbs and a side load of 1054 lbs at the top of the 55" long mast. We have repaired the bond, and plan to continue testing this week.
    • Installed a fire suppression system.
    • Installed the gascolator and fuel pump.
    • Performed a 'dummy' layup of the new rotor tip design. We discovered a few aspects of the design that could be improved, and will start a new 'dummy' layup this week. Pending a successful 'dummy' layup, we will start construction on a 16' diameter test blade, followed by full size blades for the 45' diameter rotor.
    • Continued testing the second test spar. The spar had previously been cycled 10,000 times going from 45,000 to 262,500 lbs. For the next test, we increased the load to 360,000 lbs. After several seconds at that load, the spar failed. The failure appears to have started at a dogleg in the unis that were supported with circumferential windings. We have started design on a fourth spar to eliminate the uni dogleg and let the titanium plates carry the load direction change. Note this is exactly the same load at which the first spar failed, however at that time we thought that failure occurred because of a circumferential windings failure. (Note the failure of the second spar occured after a third test spar had already been built - see below.)
    • Laid up a third spar to test. In contrast to the previous design, fillets were included in the mold itself, so that no extra pieces were required for the circumferential windings. Additionally, the titanium pieces in the spar were prepared for bonding by sanding, without any chemical treatment (the two previous spars had been chemically treated). This spar failed after 8,838 cycles going from 45,000 to 262,500 lbs. It appears that the lack of chemical surface treatment caused to the failure.

      For reference, these spar proof test loads are based on 160,000 lbs of centrifugal force from the rotor at 400 rpm (the max jump takeoff rpm).

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This web site was last updated on 2010-01-05.