The Genius of Cycloidal Propellers: Future of Flight?

the first cycloidal propellers were thought up in the early 20th century but now the same principles are being repurposed for modern vertical takeoff and Landing Vehicles later we'll be checking out the company's cycl Tech who are doing just that and see if their idea is getting off the ground but first let's see how cycloidal propellers actually work and why they might be favorable over conventional ones the first notable design of something resembling a cycl rotor is the saml jot by Russian engineer near EP sov in 1909 this vehicle featuring paddle wheels for propulsion was a step in cycl Roto development but did not achieve flight further advancements were made in the 1930s notably by Adolf robach in Germany the dvl who are the German Research Institute for Aviation evaluated robox design but the foreign Aviation journals of the time cast doubt on the design which meant that the funding for the projects could not be raised I also found this ridiculous clip of something resembling a Plane by a Jonathan Edward Caldwell the plan was for the rotating Wings to cause the aircraft to fly like a goose Mr Caldwell was later charged with fraud and a working aircraft was never completed I'm sure you're all just as surprised as I am there was also the schroer S1 of 1930 a full-sized prototype which used a cycl rotor only for forward thrust and looked a lot like a flying combine harvester I can't find much information about the schroer S1 online but it represents an era of innovation and interest in the mid 20th century where Engineers were trying to find new and interesting ways to increase the performance and maneuverability of aircraft the first operational application of cyclor Technology was the vo Schneider propeller developed by Ernst Schneider and enhanced by the company vo unlike other systems this was built for marine propulsion and was successfully tested in 1937 the vo Schneider propeller or vssp is a type of cycloidal propeller that was patented in 1931 this propeller revolutionized the ways ships could maneuver offering unparalleled precision and control compared to traditional propeller systems the ability of vssp equipped vessels to move laterally rotate on the spot and provide accurate thrust in any direction made it particularly useful for tugs fairies and other vessels requiring High maneuverability the vsp's potential was further recognized during World War II where the need for nimble highly maneuverable vessels became apparent however his widespread adoption in military applications was somewhat restricted due to the war's demand and need for more mature Technologies in the post-war era The Voice Schneider propeller found its niche in civil Maritime applications its adoption was driven by the growing recognition of its advantages in safety efficiency and operational versatility ports harbors and the flourishing offshore industry saw the vssp as a solution to their increasingly complex operational challenges over the decades vo continued to refine and innovate on the vssp advancements in hydrodynamics control systems and Material Science continue to improve its performance and range of applications today it's not only found in Marine vessels but also in Dynamic Positioning Systems for floating cranes and even in renewable energy applications such as tidal and River current turbines I found a few videos of these in action and they are pretty incredible to watch out of the water they look like some kind of death trap but on a scale model of a tugboat you can see how it is able to easily move in any direction without having to rotate the whole vessel the transition of the cycloidal propeller concept that had been working in Maritime applications for decades into Aviation is a fascinating example of technological adaptation whilst the core principles are grounded in the same Theory successfully using cycl rotors for aircrafts involves significant re-engineering to suit Air instead of water given the continued success of the vo Schneider propeller you can see why the pursuit for Airbound cycl rotors continues Engineers remain understandably excited with the promise of increased maneuverability and efficient thrust vectoring that being the possibility to change the direction of thrust in any direction you can see this in action from a test video from the company cycl Tech where the direction of the outgoing smoke can be precisely controlled to understand how this precise control is possible let's take a closer look at how exactly this propeller works and then see it in an aircraft but before that if you want to design propellers of your own or anything else for that matter you need to know about today's sponsor onshape onshape is a professional grade computer a design software that is completely free for all makers and hobbyists forever it's even free for engineers and companies for 6 months so they can properly try it out what blows my mind is that you can set up everything in 2 minutes 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lift and drag as the cylinders spin around however in order to generate lift or thrust in a single uniform Direction these air foils need to be at different angles of attack depending on where they are in the circular Loop for example if we want to go upwards the Leading Edge of the air foil on the top would need to point away from the center of rotation whereas the Leading Edge of the a foil on the bottom would need to point towards the center the air FS on the sides would therefore be tucked in as they transition to try and minimize their drag the direction that these air foils Point can be used to quickly change the direction of thrust from the propeller for example to change the direction downwards the top Air foil would have to point into the center and the bottom Air foil away from the center this means the high press side of the air foil is now on the upper side forcing it downwards similarly the angle of the side air foils could be altered for side to side movement a lot of cyc rotors will use a mechanical linkage so they can control the angle of attack of all the air foils at once this is a simple way to control everything to make sure it's in unison and make sure each blade rotates at the right point this is important because each blade must shift in orientation as it changes from being at the top sides and bottom modern setups like the ABB dinin actually use individual Servo Motors to control each air foil although this is more complex from a control point of view it allows more flexibility and likely higher efficiencies due to the different properties of water and air the timings and angles of attack in cycl rotors for each application do vary in fact some Marine systems I've seen kick out one blade with such a high angle of attack it seems to act as more of a paddle nevertheless this is broadly how they work which brings me on to some other interesting benefits unlike conventional propellers that have tips which move much faster than the inner portions of the propeller the blades of cycl rotors all move at the same speed this means the lift they generate is more uniform by default but it also means they are quieter and don't create vortices and loud noises from the rapidly moving tips this reduction in noise could be a pretty big benefit if you want to use these in air taxis in urban environments which I think is the plan for cye before looking at cycl Tech it's worth noting that these propellers aren't all sunshine and rainbows their unique blade movement requires intricate Control Systems which can increase the cost and maintenance requirements Additionally the varying angle of attacks and dynamic nature of their operation subjects the blades and structures to significant stresses potentially leading to wear and tear or even failure under harsh conditions this is made worse by the fact fact the rotor is essentially trying to pull itself apart the faster it spins the size of cycloidal propeller systems are also considerably bigger than conventional propellers in turn increasing their weight even if a cyc rotor's Thrust vectoring abilities make it more efficient in some scenarios it might be useless if the thrust to weight ratio is too low thankfully Engineers aren't wants to give up quickly when things get complicated and possibly impractical flying cars have been a childhood dream of so many of us and I think part of the excitement around the cycl tech vehicle is based on the flying car feeling it gives off this all electric vertical takeoff and Landing vehicle or EV to might be a while away from taking me from my driveway onto a big Utopian city of opportunity but what they have achieved is still pretty incredible cycl Tech is an Austrian company that has been working on their rotor design for over 15 years now and just received over $20 million of additional funding their main test vehicle appears to be a carbon fiber chassis with four of their Cy rotors attached the vehicle weighs just 83 kg of which roughly half is the cycl rotors each cycl rotor spins up to 3,100 RPM and they have successfully shown the ability for the vehicle to fly indoors tethered up however after permission from the European Union Aviation safety agency in 2023 they've also demonstrated the vehicle flying Outdoors there's no talk of the flight time available here but I imagine it's very limited given that adding batteries would quickly send up the weight of the system I do have to wonder if the cycl rotor design gives any real benefits over conventional propellers in this use case we've already seen products like the Jetson 1 demonstrate that it possible to achieve a lot of the aims of cycl tech using more mature Technologies the Jetson 1 is a similar weight at 86 kg but allows for another 95 kg in Pilot weight on top of that with a flight time of 20 minutes I have to say I really want to have a go in one of these think how easy it would be to trim all of the local Hedges or lose an arm as you're still watching please subscribe to the channel as I think you'll like some of the other videos I make like this one on drones that can 3D print houses your support helps the channel so much and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the future of cycl rotors in the comments down below thanks for watching

Channel: Ziroth

Views: 971,215

Keywords: Science, Engineering, STEM, Electric, Zero, Tesla, News, Research, EV, Battery, drone, propeller, toroidal

Id: Lqy_7lr6wuE

Length: 11min 36sec (696 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 20 2024