A Design for a Dual-Mode Personal Vehicle

As part of a study of dual-mode, personal air vehicles a roadable aircraft was designed with comparable performance to modern general aviation aircraft. Of primary consideration in the design process were the dimensional limitations required for highway operation and garage storage and their impact on the wing design. A wing was proposed which consisted of an inner “box-wing” combined with outer wing sections which could be manually stowed within the inner wing during ground operation and easily attached as extensions of the inner wing for flight. An analysis was done to determine an optimum twist for the vertical sections of the box wing to produce a winglet-type thrust.