Qualitative Validation Lifting Body VTOL with Stagnation Plates

The term lifting body aircraft has become synonymous with flying wing aircraft, however the term broadly applies to vehicles where lift pressures are generated directly on the fuselage. A new design generates these lift pressures using a vertical duct through the fuselage aligned with a centrifugal blower below the duct to generate lift pressures on the vehicle’s lower surface. The same principles are used for centrifugal pumps to generate radial momentum which generates pressure on the pump housing. While the centrifugal pump housing directs the pressure forces to a discharge orifice, the lifting body aircraft is designed to express the pressure forces on the lower body of the vehicle for lift. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations verify the efficacy of a lower cavity to extend lift pressures throughout lower vehicular surfaces. Ground effect is particularly effective toward increasing the efficacy of lift generation. Lost work is related to the clearance of the vehicle’s lower cavity perimeter with the ground. Transformation to free flight includes mechanisms of air flow resembling, but different from, vortex formation which reduce lost work and distinguishes lift generated by a rotary wing versus a ducted fan. This paper details: a) the base-case lifting body design, b) the computational fluid dynamics verification, and c) the fundamental principles which create lift and improved efficiency. Based on computational fluid dynamics interpretations, the new relatively simple designs enable vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft without destructive downwash interference on the fuselage nor the drag associated with rotary wing structures.