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Scorpion
Trek Aerospace, Inc.
Folsom, California, USA
www.trekaero.com
Founded in 1999, Trek Aerospace, Inc. is a small engineering company based in Folsom, California, USA. The company has designed and made multiple vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft including its exoskeleton jetpacks using shrouded propellers in the airframe design. The company has also designed and made watercraft. Trek Aerospace also assists companies in the design, fabrication, and licensing of projects involving shrouded propellers and/or autonomous control systems.
The company states their core technology has the highest thrust to hp/kw in the industry. This allows their aircraft to carry a lot of weight in a smaller footprint. Trek’s shrouded props require less power, use fewer batteries than other battery powered aircraft, have a greater payload and have a farther range.
The Scorpion is a hybrid-electric VTOL or eVTOL luxury passenger aircraft which holds a grand total of eight people with one or two people serving as pilots. The aircraft has (a rarely used) forward-swept high wing, three ducted fans and two rear wing mounted fins on the aircraft. The aircraft also has retractable wheeled landing gear. The estimated cruise speed of the aircraft is 250 mph (402 km/h) and has an estimated range of 500 miles (805 km). The aircraft is large enough to carry luggage for each passenger.
A forward-swept wing is an aircraft wing configuration where the wing has a forward sweep instead of the typical rear-swept wing found on large airliners. This type of wing has several advantages including reducing the dangerous tip stall condition of a rearward-swept design, it allows a smaller main wing and maneuverability is improved, especially at high angles of attack. There are several drawbacks with forward-swept wings – there is a tendency for yaw instability, an increased chance of divergence and it tends to be unstable in a stall.
The company can compensate for any deficiency of the forward-swept wing configuration by using a controller which automatically and immediately adjusts the speed of each propeller to counteract any instability of the aircraft.
The aircraft can be reconfigured for regional air taxi service, for any type of executive interior and for medevac service. It is unknown if the company is planning on making this aircraft into a production aircraft.
Specifications:
- Aircraft type: Hybrid-electric VTOL or eVTOL passenger aircraft
- Piloting: 1 or 2 pilots or autonomous
- Capacity: 8 people total, including the pilots. (Either 1 or 2 pilots)
- Cruise speed: 250 mph (402 km/h)
- Range: 500 miles (805 km)
- Flight Time: Unknown
- Propellers: 3 propellers
- Electric Motors: 3 electric motors
- Power source: Hybrid-electric or batteries
- Fuselage: Carbon fiber composite
- Windows: Typical windows found in executive jets
- Wings: 1 high forward swept high wing
- Tail: 2 rear wing mounted fins
- Landing gear: Retractable wheeled landing gear
- Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers (or ducted fans) and motors on the aircraft so if one or more propellers (ducted fans) or motors fail, the other working propellers (or ducted fans) and motors can safely land the aircraft. There are also redundancies in the sub-systems of the aircraft.
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