Bell Nexus

[chopper2004]

At yesterday’s opening of the Consumer Electronics Show CES 2019, Bell unveiled the full scale Nexus Urban Air Vehicle.

’Team Nexus, consisting of Bell, Safran, EPS, Thales, Moog and Garmin, are collaborating on Bell’s VTOL aircraft and on-demand mobility solutions. Bell will lead the design, development and production of the VTOL systems. Safran (http://news.bellflight.com/en-US/167024-bell-and-safran-announce-shared-vision-for-on-demand-mobility) will provide the hybrid propulsion and drive systems, EPS (http://news.bellflight.com/en-US/169538-bell-and-electric-power-systems-sign-teaming-agreement-for-on-demand-mobility-energy-storage-systems) will provide the energy storage systems, Thales (http://news.bellflight.com/en-US/169352-bell-and-thales-collaborate-on-flight-controls-of-the-future) will provide the Flight Control Computer (FCC) hardware and software, Moog (http://news.bellflight.com/en-US/170203-bell-and-moog-collaborate-for-on-demand-mobility-flight-control-actuation-system) will develop the flight control actuation systems and Garmin (http://news.bellflight.com/en-US/168955-bell-and-garmin-sign-teaming-agreement-for-on-demand-mobility-avionics-systems) will integrate the avionics and the vehicle management computer (VMC)’

cheers

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1000x1000/26891fd8_3258_4301_9717_f3bc005fcccf_40715bf54812927d1193ac4 99ccb9ecf64011bd0.jpeg

[rrekn]

Not sure you'll get all the fans vertical... Not a lot of lifting devices left.

[John R81]

Rrekn - don't be too sure.......... you can do marvellous things with Photoshop

[PANews]

It is being promoted as a taxi thereby implying that it, like the flying car, can be operated by just any old Uber driver....and drop onto your drive at home or office ..take you to the Golden Globes .......... bah humbug!

Great bit of PR from the same sort of PR source that said Drones do not need piloting!!!!

Of course its still a tool that will need a pilot with a CPL..... as always it is the driver that costs the most to train and acquire.

With six swivel fans to maintain it will undoubtably be way less complex to look after and operate a Bell 505.... though it may be a bit more messy landing in a football crowd....

[Photonic]

Yeah, no way. See those nice, very expensive waterfront homes in the image? You think the local town council will allow something with rotors loud enough to lift 5 pax and baggage on that route?

That's the problem with the whole "taxi" idea. This will bust all kinds of local noise ordinances, if it can fly any route that's actually useful as a point-to-point taxi ride. People aren't very tolerant of noise pollution as it is. They'll be even less tolerant when it's a mode of conveyance only the wealthy can afford. It *might* work in a dense city center with rooftop helipads, keeping the noise far enough overhead.

Just once, I want to see a promotional video for something like this, or the Airbus concept, with an honest depiction of what it will sound like.

[blackdog7]

Looks like a flying pig!
What a ridiculous concept - didn't think weed was legal in Texas. Perhaps it should be.

[Ascend Charlie]

The NIMBY crowd will ensure it can never happen.

[500e]

Quiet news week ?

[CGameProgrammerr]

I would love to see manned multirotors in operation, but I agree they will never work as taxis because of noise. People buy houses near airports and then complain about the airport noise, and they have relatively low traffic volume along fairly narrow routes. As far as pilots go, it's not possible to pilot a multi-rotor in the normal sense because computers are required to manage the motors, so a human really cannot do anything more than what you do with remote drones (giving it relatively high-level commands). But there still must be a PIC and of course the pilot must know radio, navigation, weather, etc.

[IFMU]

Shouldn't the sultan have checked in to tell us how beautiful the Nexus is?

[Ascend Charlie]

Looks like 6 times the normal amount of LTE from that one!

[mnttech]

Well, a little more than photoshop. Nexus Youtube video

[surely not]

Whenever I see the promos for tilt rotor air taxi concepts such as this my thoughts go to the video of the V-22 dropping into an open air wedding as a surprise for the bride and groom. There were tables and chairs flying everywhere, not to mention ladies attire being ruined, by the downwash. Even in the link below the downwash is an issue though less spectacular.

I appreciate that the air taxi concept will be a far smaller machine, but then isn't it supposed to get into smaller places, therefore the issue of an unsecured landing area and FOD are still relevant aren't they?

V-22 landing in small town in Denmark

[Bell_ringer]

40ft wide and deep. 6000 lbs, turbine powered.
That's bigger and heavier than a 407 but fewer pax.
Doesnt look inexpensive
Perhaps the answer is just to make existing helicopters a bit cheaper to operate?

[T28B]

Perhaps the answer is just to make existing helicopters a bit cheaper to operate? There is an entire industry open to your suggestions. :E

[jimjim1]

.
With six swivel fans to maintain it will undoubtably be way less complex to look after and operate a Bell 505....

I doubt that this new machine will be as complex as a conventional helicopter. Certainly not as mechanically complex.

A conventional helicopter is very complex hence the high operating cost.

The six fans are on very simple mountings with hovering attitude control being accomplished by simply changing the current supplied to the motors. Other than the rotating engines, generators and motors no moving parts involved. Hopefully it will be possible to avoid variable pitch rotors??

Compare with a conventional helicopter with all its gearboxes, shafts, control linkages, swashplates etc, every part of which has to work perfectly every time. It is possible that this aircraft may well be able to make a safe landing with one (or more?) rotors inoperative. If one fails, shut down the opposite one and carry on... :)

It may be possible to deal with power peaks with batteries meaning that smaller engines and generators could be utilised. It's just arithmetic and engineering.

Well might soon enough find out.

https://www.verticalmag.com/news/bell-unveils-full-design-for-nexus-air-taxi/
Just found this - quite a lot of detail here.

[Photonic]

40ft wide and deep. 6000 lbs, turbine powered.
That's bigger and heavier than a 407 but fewer pax.
Doesnt look inexpensive
Perhaps the answer is just to make existing helicopters a bit cheaper to operate?
A helicopter is too loud and obnoxious to fit the "air taxi" theme these companies are trying to sell. They think it's a brand new market, but they're going to run into the same noise abatement and potential FOD property damage issues that non-emergency helicopter flights have to deal with. Maybe even worse, if the ducted fans have a higher-pitched whine.

That is, unless someone at Bell has discovered quiet anti-gravity engines. Or Flubber.

[Bell_ringer]

A helicopter is too loud and obnoxious to fit the "air taxi" theme these companies are trying to sell. They think it's a brand new market, but they're going to run into the same noise abatement and potential FOD property damage issues that non-emergency helicopter flights have to deal with. Maybe even worse, if the ducted fans have a higher-pitched whine.

That is, unless someone at Bell has discovered quiet anti-gravity engines. Or Flubber.

So this is a concept and as yank corporates like to say "forward looking". The end game will be very different to what is on display.
I don't get what market they are aiming for, apart from the very wealthy, super flash and those lacking cool transport around their private pad in the Virgin Islands.
Maybe this will be cheaper to run but by how much? It carries passengers so will be subject to regulations and that will come with cost to certify and maintain, unless they are hoping that special air-taxi regs will let them avoid all those annoying requirements conventional aircraft have to meet.
It has to move enough air to lift 6000 lbs and while it has 6 enclosed high-speed spinny bits instead of 1, who in their right mind would be happy to have an air-taxi rank in their neighbourhood?
They have managed to wangle their way around two engines with battery backup but will it fly on 5 fans when one has ingested little Billy's drone?
It will likely have nominal range over which you can move a small number of people. I just don't see how the economics stack up. Perhaps Bell will release their operator's business case for it.

[rrekn]

Speaking of mechanically complex, with a fixed pitched prop of that size, there will be no ability to autorotate.

Being essentially single engine, I wonder how they are going to argue there is sufficient redundancy for operations over built up areas? Ballistic Parachute?

[rrekn]

And for a better example of what high disk loading leads to:

(watch for the trees)

PI9gWlM0QY8

[Bell_ringer]

Speaking of mechanically complex, with a fixed pitched prop of that size, there will be no ability to autorotate.

Being essentially single engine, I wonder how they are going to argue there is sufficient redundancy for operations over built up areas? Ballistic Parachute?

It has a battery backup for extra takeoff power and for landing when the French turbine inevitably starts making metal :}

[SansAnhedral]

Speaking of mechanically complex, with a fixed pitched prop of that size, there will be no ability to autorotate.

The real operating rotors don't appear to be fixed pitch

https://assets.bellflight.com/web/5b764c73356b8e75/ces-2019/?mediaId=5298B462-EFAC-4B31-A80CF454E1F843CC

With a disc loading of about 19 that's approximately 10% lower than a V22.

[IFMU]

The real operating rotors don't appear to be fixed pitch

https://assets.bellflight.com/web/5b764c73356b8e75/ces-2019/?mediaId=5298B462-EFAC-4B31-A80CF454E1F843CC

With a disc loading of about 19 that's approximately 10% lower than a V22.
19 psf is pretty high. I bet the inertia is next to zilch. Variable pitch or not autorotation doesn't seem very viable.

[tottigol]

Looks like 6 times the normal amount of LTE from that one!

Drumroll! Winner!

[Photonic]

19 psf is pretty high. I bet the inertia is next to zilch. Variable pitch or not autorotation doesn't seem very viable.

Right, I don't think autorotation in the conventional helicopter sense is in the design. The idea is 100% computer control that will sense if the engine dies and immediately shift to stored battery power, to maneuver around obstacles for a safe landing. Or if one of the fan motors dies, it will shift electric power to the others and keep everything balanced for a controlled landing. All of this in theory, of course.

And it will just take one of those "safe" landings on someone's house to kill the "taxi" concept in litigation. Even if the noise doesn't kill the concept first, and I think that's really the main obstacle because none of these things are actually in the air over people's houses yet.