Morgan EM-J hybrid

[AeroFranz]

A colleague sent me an article from a wisconsin newspaper that says the following

Morgan Aircraft has signed a lease deal with Sheboygan County, Wis., to build a 600,000-square-foot manufacturing plant and other facilities at the Sheboygan County Memorial Airport. The facility will be used to produce Morgan's Extremely Maneuverable Jet, or EM-J, a hybrid airplane-helicopter, and the project, which is expected to create as many as 2,000 jobs, is being supported by a nearly $30 million economic incentive package from Wisconsin.

I've never heard of such project, and frankly I'm skeptical about startups offering 'hybrid aircraft helicopter' vehicles, but you never know....
my searches were fruitless. Does anyone know if there is anything real in this?

edit: a friend of mine had better luck, finding a single picture in an online issue of "propwash". I attached a picture of the concept, which curiously does not look like a jet (well, it's a turboprop) and it shouldn't be particularly maneuverable in its passenger-carrying mission.

 

[Machdiamond]

Here is his patent that shows both jet and turboprop versions:

http://www.google.com/patents?id=VfoTAAAAEBAJ&zoom=4&pg=PA1#v=onepage&q=&f=false

It's good that people keep trying crazy stuff like this because you never know, but I don't believe this will work too well.

--Luc

 

[VTOLicious]

...which is expected to create as many as 2,000 jobs, is being supported by a nearly $30 million economic incentive package from Wisconsin.

Seems Morgan Aircraft is still alive...and created 5 jobs!!! http://www.morganaircraft.com/index.html

Brian Morgan: Co-Founder & CEO
Mark O'Halloran: Co-Founder & CFO
Rick Harig: Director of Corporate Development
Kevin Wright: Mechanical Design Engineer
Al Koch: Manager of Human Resources

Oh well, without the founders its only 3 and they are working on a "game-changing" UAS.

Cheers, Michael

 

[Grey Havoc]

Apparently the EM-J was initially just called 'The Morgan': http://www.gotoltc.com/press/press.php?id=32

Here's one of the news stories from around the time (Milwakaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel, July 2009): http://www.jsonline.com/business/51407752.html

And, via the Sheboygan County Economic Development Corporation newsletter, an official press release from only last year: http://sheboygancountyedc.com/news/press-releases/morgan-aircraft-secures-commitment-from-wisconsin-edc-company-poised-to-grow-aerospace-industry-in-sheboygan-county/


It would seem that the EM-J was something of a pet project for the previous state governor, Governor Doyle, and the last Assembly (Morgan Aircraft was part of their much touted Enterprise Zone program).

Although to be fair, it does not appear to be total vaporware or a scam. Whether they will be able to successfully scale up the technology to a manned vehicle in the near term remains to be seen, however.

 

[Grey Havoc]

From the website:

Problem: Today’s business jets can indeed move people between airports at jet speeds, but ground travel is still a large portion of each trip and a potential for large delays as well. Eliminating ground travel portions of a trip would require the use of a helicopter at each end of a trip. The military and government agency markets demand aircraft that can be deployed from limited spaces to support operations that are far from runways, and that deliver speed and range far-exceeding helicopters. The Harrier and Osprey Tilt-rotor technologies present flight performance compromises, high acquisition and operating costs, and known safety issues.



Solution: Morgan Aircraft’s patented technology will provide stable VTOL flight, direct point-to-point travel ease, and the speed, range, and comfort of a business jet – the Extremely Maneuverable Jet (EM-J).
•Civil EM-Js will deliver passengers directly to their business and medical centers, oil rigs, timber camps, mining operations, pipelines, cruise ships, and private residences, requiring only a 50-ft landing zone.
•In UAV form, it will significantly increase the availability of life-saving information to many venues and arenas by providing real-time data from a UAV system that requires no more than an empty parking space to deploy.
•Other manned EM-Js will provide point-to-point access, deliver supplies to remote areas, enable safer troop placement, extraction, and long-distance emergency medical operations, save capital investment (up to 75% versus the Tilt-rotor), time (up to 45% versus jets), and operating costs and fuel consumption (up to 70% versus helicopters).

 

[aam641]

The Harrier and Osprey Tilt-rotor technologies present flight performance compromises, high acquisition and operating costs, and known safety issues.

It looks to me like EM-J has all the safety issues of both Harrier and Osprey and few others on top of that.

Also, where is the high maneuverability coming from? The vertical rotors are too close to the centre of gravity to contribute much.

 

[VTOLicious]

The Harrier and Osprey Tilt-rotor technologies present flight performance compromises, high acquisition and operating costs, and known safety issues.

... it seems Morgan is comparing apples and oranges.

I would rather compare it with the Bell X-22A! Four ducted fans, similar size, similar disc loading,...http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,12605.msg124312.html#msg124312

In my opinion the X-22A would be the better choice. Not to mention that a X-22 successor designed & build with todays technologies would outperform the EM-J with ease.

 

[ouroboros]

For some reason I was reminded of the hybrid UAV Excalibur, a VTOL with a rotating center mount jet engine with slide out electric fans embedded in the outer wing.

 

[AeroFranz]

Just for reference, Excalibur was a one-off prototype by Aurora Flight Sciences. It used one pivoting williams engine and three lift fans powered by batteries, so it was a hybrid-electric vehicle.

 

[VTOLicious]

Just for reference, Excalibur was a one-off prototype by Aurora Flight Sciences. It used one pivoting williams engine and three lift fans powered by batteries, so it was a hybrid-electric vehicle.

Off topic, but what happened to the Excalibur project?
According to the company-website it is still in development!? http://www.aurora.aero/Development/Excalibur.aspx
The first (hover)flight video seemed promising. Did the prototype ever transition to horizontal flight?

Btw, here is the corresponding excalibur-thread:http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7280.msg63089.html#msg63089

Regards, Michael

 

[AeroFranz]

Simple. Ran out of money

 

[ouroboros]

Just for reference, Excalibur was a one-off prototype by Aurora Flight Sciences. It used one pivoting williams engine and three lift fans powered by batteries, so it was a hybrid-electric vehicle.

Off topic, but what happened to the Excalibur project?
According to the company-website it is still in development!? http://www.aurora.aero/Development/Excalibur.aspx
The first (hover)flight video seemed promising. Did the prototype ever transition to horizontal flight?

Btw, here is the corresponding excalibur-thread:http://www.secretprojects.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,7280.msg63089.html#msg63089

Regards, Michael

There was a presentation done by an Aurora guy at one of the summer UAV conferences with an explicit mention of Excalibur, with the implication that some work was continuing, but the conference notes weren't public so who knows if it was an update on progress, or a footnote in UAV development.

 

[AeroFranz]

I can tell you hybrid electric technologies are still of interest to Aurora, but without external funding it's hard to spare resources for that project.

 

[hesham]

Hi,


http://whbl.com/news/articles/2011/aug/17/financial-help-for-morgan-aircraft/

 

[Rafael]

I was googling around and found this picture. It's frustrating trying to find more, brochures, presentations, etc.
Are we sure this isn't a Stavatti like aircraft?
What's maneuverable about it?
Aren't there many proposals and projects (also documented in this site) using ducted fans/props and very few come to fruition?
I like this concept from the pure "cute" looks of it, but to the in-house braintrust: Is this practicable?

 

[Avimimus]

To be fair - STOLL can itself be classified as a form of "maneuverability" (in that it allows maneuvers - in this case, landing and take-off - that would be impossible without Stoll capability).

We're basically talking about a civil aircraft with a few lift fans...? Maybe they're hoping that the recession will make it easier to get special amendments to the flight safety laws...

 

[hesham]

Hi,


http://www.deskeng.com/services/246/vtol-vehicle-design-and-development/