The Carter PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) is a two-bladed, compound autogyro developed by Carter Aviation Technologies to demonstrate slowed rotor technology. The design has an unpowered rotor mounted on top of the fuselage, wings like a conventional fixed-wing aircraft mounted underneath, and a controllable pitch pusher propeller at the rear of the fuselage. Heavy weights ( each) are placed in the rotor tips to enhance rotational energy and to reduce flapping.
Development When the CarterCopter was damaged in 2005 due to a gear-up landing caused by pilot error, the cost of repair was deemed higher than the cost of making a new aircraft with the added benefit of incorporating lessons learned from the first aircraft. Design of the PAV was begun during 2005."" Carter Aviation, 2 January 2006. Retrieved: 7 August 2010. Quote: "For the past several months, Carter has been designing a new aircraft""CarterCopter prototype in the works " Texomas, 20 December 2006. Retrieved: 26 January 2014. Several changes and development problems occurred along the way; twin boom was deemed unnecessary, so a single boom was constructed, and flaws in rotor blades and hub were revealed during testing and then corrected.Carter 4-Place PAV Jane's Information Group Jane's All the World's Aircraft, 20 July 2010. Retrieved: 9 September 2010. Archive Carter Aviation, 2003–2010. Retrieved: 7 August 2010.
On 16 November 2009, the AAI Corporation (a division of Textron) signed a 40-year exclusive license agreementTextron Subsidiary To Develop Carter Rotor Technology AVweb, 18 November 2009. Retrieved: 1 May 2010.Page, Lewis VTOL gyro-copter flying car mates with killer robot The Register, 20 November 2009. Retrieved: 1 May 2010. with the company concerning all unmanned aircraft systems, one of which was intended to deliver of cargo similar to the unmanned Kaman K-MAX, but over a future range of compared to the demonstrated or more of the K-MAX.Team K-MAX demonstrates successful unmanned Helicopter Cargo resupply to U.S. Marine Corps , Lockheed Martin press release, 8 February 2010. Retrieved 14 March 2010. The agreement committed CarterCopters to developing the technology to maturity, in exchange for exclusive rights to develop UAVs for the next 40 years. The first product in the AAI agreement was to be an autonomous slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) aircraft based on the Carter Personal Air Vehicle.Textron and Carter Aviation or Lockheed Martin might build DARPAs flying Hummer Next Big Future 29 August 2010. Retrieved 21 December 2010.Warwick, Graham. "Perseverance Pays Off for CarterCopter " Aviation Week, 20 November 2009. Retrieved: 9 January 2014."Wichita Falls aviation company lands lucrative deal" Seven News, undated. Retrieved: 28 January 2014.
"Critical Design Review" (CDR) for AAI Corporation was performed around January 2010 when the prototype was already being built. Usually a CDR is performed before a vehicle is built. Carter Aviation, 5 January 2010. Retrieved: 7 August 2010.
In 2014, Carter said they bought back the license from AAILombardi, Frank. "Q&A with Carter Aviation CEO Jay Carter" Rotor&Wing, 6 May 2014. Retrieved: 1 August 2014. Archived on 6 May 2014. and is seeking production partners outside USA,"Carter Aviation Technologies Seeks Investors For PAV Prototype" Aero-News, 3 September 2014. Retrieved: 27 September 2014. hoping for production 3–5 years later.Moore, Jim. "Carter seeks factory" Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, 21 May 2015. Retrieved: 16 July 2015. Archived on 22 May 2015.
Testing The PAV was taxi tested in autumn of 2010"" Carter, 24 October 2010. at Olney Airport after FAA Special Airworthiness CertificateWood, Janice. Carter PAV heads to flight testing General Aviation News, 25 October 2010. Retrieved: 15 November 2010. Archived on 7 January 2014. on 27 July 2010, and performed traffic pattern movement on 2 December 2010, piloted by Larry Neal at the controls and co-pilot Robert Luna.Aircraft Completes First Phase Of Flight Testing KAUZ-TV NewsChannel 6, 26 January 2011. Retrieved 27 January 2011. Archived on 3 November 2013. Larry Neal was also one of the pilots of the CarterCopter at Olney in 2005.You Say You Wanna Revolution? Carter Copter Tests New Rotor Aero-News, 6 April 2005. Retrieved 3 January 2011. Archived on 5 April 2012.Crosbie, Katie. Carter Aviation Technology announces new contract Texomas, 7 October 2010. Retrieved 3 January 2011. Archived on 2 October 2011.
The first flight occurred on 5 January 2011 at Olney without wings and lasted 36 minutes, which qualified Carter for a milestone payment.Wood, Janice. Carter PAV hits first milestone General Aviation News, 17 January 2011. Retrieved: 21 January 2011. Archived on 18 February 2014.Carter PAV Completes 1st Funding Milestone Flight Aero-News, 18 January 2011. Retrieved: 21 January 2011. Archived on 5 April 2012.Paur, Jason. New autogyro is an alternative to flying cars Wired, 21 January 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2011. Archived on 4 March 2014.
Carter stated that the PAV performed its first zero-roll jump take-off on 18 January 2011, to a height of . Eight jump take-offs were performed. There are some electrical issues with the aircraft, and it is not in volume production.ANN Special Feature: Carter PAV flight test update – 01.20.11 Aero-News, 20 January 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2011.Guyot, Fareed. Carter Personal Air Vehicle completes Phase-One flight testing EAA Air Venture, 21 January 2011. Retrieved 21 January 2011.
The PAV flew traffic patterns with wings at Olney in January 2012,January Meeting page 9 Texas Rotorcraft Association, February 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012. and has since flown winged test flights. It flew a few hours at a time, but its flight certificate restricted it to within of Olney.Shores, Gary et al. "Minutes of the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation" page 3, 21 June 2013. Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation. Retrieved: 2 September 2012.
As of June 2012, development of the PAV is a year behind scheduleShores, Gary et al. ""Minutes of the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation" p2, 18 April 2012. Mirror, page 12 Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation. Retrieved 20 July 2012. due to various technical problems,Shores, Gary et al. "Minutes of the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation", 29 June 2012. Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation. Retrieved: 29 November 2012. and a delay of a further year was caused by rotor RPM software control issues. Carter received funding from the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation in 2010 to complete the PAV.Shores, Gary et al. "Minutes of the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation" p1-3, 18 June 2012. Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation. Retrieved: 20 July 2012.Shores, Gary et al. "Minutes of the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation" p2, 4 June 2012. Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation. Retrieved: 26 November 2012.Shores, Gary & Carter, Jay. Resolution 132-2009 mirror City of Wichita Falls, Texas, 6 October 2009. Retrieved: 4 January 2011."" Carter views the lack of a PAV flight simulator as a mistake, and attempts to build one. The previous CarterCopter was designed using a flight simulator.
Carter says that the PAV has a lift to drag ratio of 10–15,"Carter Aviation Reaches Major Milestone" Carter via Helicopter Association International, 4 December 2013. Retrieved: 5 December 2013. and reached an advance ratio of 0.85 in 2012.
According to Carter, the PAV reached Mu-1 on 7 November 2013. It also achieved a speed of , and the rotor was slowed down to 113 rpm.Deener, Sarah. "Slowed rotor has high-speed implications" Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, 13 November 2013. Retrieved: 11 November 2013. Archived on 28 May 2015.Tatro, Jon. "" Carter, 8 November 2013. Retrieved: 11 November 2013. The PAV flew its first public show flight outside Olney when it flew to Wichita Falls later that month."Area company shows off new aircraft" Times Record News, 23 November 2013. Retrieved: 25 November 2013. Carter says the PAV has achieved a speed of at an altitude of , a Mu of 1.13"Carter Aviation Considered for Multi-Billion Dollar DOD Contact " Texomas, 24 January 2014. Retrieved: 26 January 2014."Carter vehicle breaks records" Times Record News, 28 January 2014. Retrieved: 28 January 2014. and an L/D of 11.6O'dell, Bob. "January Meeting" page 7 Texas Rotorcraft Association, February 2014. Retrieved: 28 August 2014. Archived on 3 September 2014.-15. Carter has applied to the FAA to change the PAVs certificate from research and development to demonstration.Warwick, Graham. "Lockheed/Piasecki Team Tackles Cargo UAV" Aviation Week, 24 February 2014. Retrieved: 26 February 2014. Archived on 3 January 2015.
The second PAV (called PAV-II, registration N210AV) was flight approved in March 2014,"N210AV" Flight Aware. Retrieved: 2 September 2013 and demonstrated at Sun 'n Fun air festival and MacDill Air Force Base in 2014, both in Florida.Grady, Mary. "Carter Shows Off VTOL Capabilities" AVweb, 8 April 2014. Retrieved: 10 April 2014. Archived on 13 April 2014. In July 2014, it was displayed at Oshkosh Airshow. Carter says it has flown at . The first non-Carter pilots flew the aircraft in 2015."Carter Copter soaring again" Times Record News, 24 September 2015. Retrieved: 29 September 2015. Archive
Design
Computer aided design and X-plane flight simulation were used during development.Guevarra, Daniel. Carter PAV Is Getting Plenty Of Attention At EAA AirVenture AvStop Online Magazine, 29 July 2009. Archived on 13 April 2015.Fisher, Mark. CarterCopter Technology Demonstrator, Pilot’s Operating Handbook X-Plane, 2002. Archived on 16 March 2012. Unlike the twin-boom CarterCopter, the PAV has a single tailboom.Carter PAV 2+2 Mirror. Jane's all the world's aircraft, 25 November 2008. Retrieved: 9 September 2010. Carter PAV nearly complete AirPlanes, 7 August 2008. Retrieved 1 January 2011. A tilting mast allows the rotor to be tilted 15 degrees forward and 30 degrees aft to allow different centres of gravity and wing angle-of-attacks.
Helicopter rotors are designed to operate at a fixed RPMCroucher, Phil. Professional helicopter pilot studies page 2-11. . Quote: [Rotor speed] "is constant in a helicopter".John M. Seddon, Simon Newman. Basic Helicopter Aerodynamics p216, John Wiley and Sons, 2011. Retrieved: 25 February 2012. . Quote: The rotor is best served by rotating at a constant rotor speedRobert Beckhusen. "Army Dumps All-Seeing Chopper Drone" Wired 25 June 2012. Retrieved: 12 October 2013. Archived on 22 April 2015. Quote:The number of revolutions per minute is also set at a fixed rate (within a narrow range of a few percent),The UH-60 permits 95–101% rotor RPM UH-60 limits US Army Aviation. Retrieved: 2 January 2010 whereas Carter uses RPM ranges between 100 and 350.Moore, Jim. "Carter seeks factory" Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, 21 May 2015. Retrieved: 28 May 2014. Archived on 22 May 2015. Most aircraft have two energy parameters (speed and altitude) which the pilot can trade between, but Carter technology attempts to use rotor rotation as a third energy parameter.Marker, Doug. Doing Vertical Take-offs and Landings with an Unpowered Rotor 2 November 1999. 1A+B Carter Aviation, 24 March 1999. Retrieved 25 September 2011.
The purpose of the Slowed Rotor/Compound aircraft is to enhance the flight envelope compared to fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters and traditional autogyros, by minimizing the dangerous areas of the stall speed diagram/height–velocity diagramCarter, Jay Jr. Q-&-A Audio at 16m. Popular Rotorcraft Association, 16 February 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2010 as well as moving the speed limit up.Carter, Jay Jr. Webinar at 7m35s and 29m20s. Popular Rotorcraft Association, 16 February 2010. Retrieved 21 January 2010