cc >> Good morning, everyone,
and welcome to the AeroInnovate Technology Showcase Stage.
My name is Meredith Jagger, and I'm the co-founder and director
of AeroInnovate at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.
AeroInnovate aims to help entrepreneurs from across the
globe connect to investors and partners to start new companies
and bring related new technologies to the marketplace.
We do this by using our four key pillars.
The first one is to educate to build a pipeline of up and
coming aero innovators. The second is to align investors
in aero-related industry leaders with quality opportunities to
expose new aero-related technologies to the world in a
forum such as this at our Technology Showcase Stage.
And, lastly, to connect aero innovators with people and
resources that they need to grow and succeed in their start-up
business. So, this morning I'd like to
introduce our Technology Showcase presenter from
Caravella Aerospace. Joe Caravella is the founder and
owner of Caravella, and he's here to tell us a little bit
about his affordable, roadable aircraft that integrates
airplane and motorcycle components into one vehicle that
is designed to drive, transform, and fly over and over and over
again. So, with that,
please welcome Joe. [APPLAUSE]
Thank you very much, Meredith.
We're happy to be here. So thank you to AeroInnovate for
the opportunity to come and talk to you today.
I'm always happy to be at AirVenture.
As she said, my name is Joe Caravella, and I am here to talk
to you about roadable aircraft technology today and tomorrow.
So, the first thing we'll show you is a little intro video.
This is a roadable aircraft. It is street legal as a
motorcycle, and we have full authority to operate on all
public roads and highways. When they say flying car,
what they really want is George Jetson.
They want a vehicle that's quiet, takes of vertically,
parks in the garage, drops them right off at work.
Today's infrastructure, that's just not feasible.
Such a device would be prohibitively loud,
prohibitively expensive. So this roadable aircraft works
with all the existing infrastructure of the day.
You drive it on the highway, you take off at an airport,
you land at another airport, then you drive to work.
I don't have to change any laws. I don't have to build
any new roads. It immediately works with
today's infrastructure.
All right, so that gives you a little teaser about what we're
going to talk about today. Get into full screen mode here.
So we went through the intro video.
A little bit of biography about myself.
I'm Joe. I studied aeronautical and
astronautical engineering at Purdue University.
I got my bachelor's and master's there.
I worked for 10 years in combustion devices development
at Rocketdyne in Canoga Park, California, on a variety of
different rocket engine technologies.
In 2007, I founded Caravella Aerospace with the mission of
developing an affordable roadable aircraft.
Since we began, I've presented AirVenture forums on roadable
aircraft and their design here at AirVenture both 2009 and 2010
and here again in 2012. And currently, as you just saw,
our prototype fuselage is street legal and has logged over 300
miles of road testing on public streets.
We've reached up to 65 miles per hour on the highway, and we're
continuing on in that part of the test program.
So what I'd like to do today in talking about roadable aircraft
is define them so we know and kind of have the same idea of
what we're talking about, describe my motivation for a
vehicle that drives, transforms, and flies, talk about the
operation of such a vehicle, the challenges involved in the
design of that kind of vehicle, and then some of the innovative
solutions that we use to solve those challenges.
And then we'll also have some ideas for what the future holds.
So, drive, transform, fly. On one side of the spectrum you
have the motor vehicle, cars, motorcycles, etc.
On the other side of the spectrum you have aircraft,
fixed wing, rotor craft, powered lift, light than air,
etc., and somewhere in the middle you have what we call
roadable aircraft, and those are the vehicles that drive,
transform, and fly. So the pictures here give you an
idea of the range of design options in that space between
motor vehicle and aircraft. Some that look more like a car,
some that look more like a plane, and some that look kind
of in between. The one we're working is the one
there top and center. It's called the Caravellair.
So, you've all seen this chart before in a variety of different
formats and incarnations. So we all know why we're doing
it, but it boils down, in some senses, to faster travel time.
It allows you to go under weather.
It allows you to go over traffic.
You see the two images there of the clouds you don't want to fly
through and the traffic you don't want to be stuck in.
And it reduces you door to door travel time in certain range
segments. Also, roadable aircraft has the
ability to lower your recurring costs, in most cases, by
eliminating the need for a hanger, and in some specific
cases by allowing the use of automotive fuels
instead of AvGas. Another nice feature of roadable
aircraft is it enables you to have a longer commutable
distance. So for the same commute time you
can live further away from your employment, provided there are
airports where they need to be, but what that can do is expand
the housing opportunities available to you.
In my particular case in southern California, Los Angeles
is a large metroplex with some expensive houses in the center
and some very large, nice houses that are further away.
So it helps to balance that kind of tradeoff.
And in the end, roadable aircraft are innovative and
cool. When I say cool, I mean it
really captures the public's attention.
When I drive around the streets and come to a stoplight, it's
almost hard to get going when the light turns green because
I'm trying to answer so many questions to the people next to
me. It's also very exciting when the
guys in the Ferrari catch up to you and are asking you as you're
driving down the highway, what is that?
When is it going to fly? So we're really happy that the
public is excited about roadable aircraft.
So, this is just a little cartoon of how they can operate.
And this folds into how you design the roadable aircraft as
well. So, you see, starting in the
garage at home, driving to airport A, folding out wings and
tails, and flying. If there happens to be a
thunderstorm or if your destination is airport B, you
can land at airport B. If you want to continue you
travels through weather or to you office, you can transform
back into a car and get to destination C, which could be
your office or could be another airport on the other side of the
thunderstorm at which point you can fly again if you're
continuing on a cross-country journey.
So you can see the recreational application, how that fits in
that little cartoon as well as expanding to the commuting
application and the cross-country application.
And depending on how much of these different operations you
want to do, it can change the design of the roadable aircraft.
Whether or not you leave the wing and tail or other aircraft
components at one of the airports or not.
My envision of a fully useful roadable aircraft is one that
can do all of these. Travel on the ground at highway
speeds and travel in the air at a speed greater than you can
achieve on the ground. So, what are some of the key
challenges in roadable aircraft? There have been a few different
takes on this. Roadable Times is another
resource that kind of outlines the challenges.
So some of the key ones are the handling which gets into both
handling on the ground and handling in the air, the
controls required, the weight of the vehicle which is one of the
larger challenges, cost is another large challenge
especially when it comes time to bring the product to market, and
then safety. So what we're going to do is
discuss some of our innovative solutions for those key
challenges and how technology plays a role.
So starting with handling, the key design challenge for all
roadable aircraft is to optimize the compromises between the car
and the plane. We do this with innovative
design choices. Now, there are many ways of
doing this, and many good ways of doing this.
In our particular instance, we were focusing on hitting the
middle ground between motor vehicle application and an
aircraft application. So what we do is we fold the
wing in three places which allows to have a greater span in
aircraft mode and a reduced area and lower center of gravity in
the car mode. So on the left you see an image
of our particular vehicle with the wing folded along the side
of the fuselage which is essentially at the same height
as the fuselage. Further, we have an extending
tail which allows the airplane, as you see on the right, to have
a very long tail. And it looks pretty much like an
airplane. And then by having that tail
move, it allows you to have a shorter motor vehicle.
So you can see the length of the vehicle on the left is much
shorter. Furthermore, that allows the
center of gravity to move forward which improves the
ground handling as the motor vehicle.
Another piece of the puzzle there is that incidence of the
wing, which is another design variable which can be used to
tailor the design. Control systems are another
unique challenge in roadable aircraft because you have
aircraft controls, you have automotive controls, and you
have drivers that are familiar with automotive controls, pilots
that are familiar with aircraft controls, and in our case we
were focusing on a single-seat development prototype so we did
not have a lot of space in the cockpit.
So what we did is develop a patent-pending three-axis
control yoke that eliminates the need for rudder pedals.
I want to emphasize that it is full three-axis control.
So the way we explain it is imagine a stick-controlled
airplane where you have pitch and roll and you attach a yaw
control element like a steering wheel on the end of that stick.
So, I will demonstrate for you a coordinated turn.
I will now demonstrate for you a slip.
So you have all those controls in your hand and no need for
rudder pedals. The reason this is important is
we already have a gas, a brake, and a clutch.
So the pedal space is already occupied.
Now, we do admit that this represents some degree of
learning curve from the pilot's perspective.
Just like we, as pilots, expect a learning curve from the
automotive operator's perspective.
In the future, and other ways of addressing kind of the
mechanical linkages involved with this type of system is to
use hydraulic or fly-by-wire systems.
There are limitations and benefits to those types of
systems, but they can be an important element of technology
to allow you to move your flight surfaces from a flight mode to
an automotive mode more simply. Weight.
Weight is the big one. So, why are we lighter now than
in the past? Modern materials, modern engines
are the key way for the empty weight of vehicles to come down
So you can see in the light sport revolution the use of
composite materials in the modern engines have allowed
these aircraft with good performance to have gross
weights of only 1320 pounds. So in the case of roadable
aircraft, we have an additional challenge because we need to
carry both automotive and aircraft performance capability.
In some cases that means two engines.
In some cases it means one. All these cases on pictures on
the left are all designs that have a single engine.
On the top you have Moult Taylor's Aerocar, in the middle
you have the concept we're working on, and on the bottom
there you have a Terrafugia Transition.
And I, from the public data, pulled the empty weights for
those vehicles. So you can see Moult Taylor's
design was at 1500 pounds, our design is at 1100 pounds, so
ours is an all-aluminum construction but it uses a high
power weight modern engine. We are also only a one-seater,
so that helps to bring down the empty weight.
And then the one on the bottom there at 970 pounds is taking
advantage of carbon fiber. One of the reasons that we don't
use carbon fiber in our design is it's designed to be a kit so
you can build it without production level tooling.
So in the future, what are we going to see technologically
speaking that helps in building aircraft?
Well, one example is 3D printed parts.
It can greatly speed prototype time and give you end pieces
directly from computer models. One of the key challenges there
is they need to improve the structural capabilities and the
material they use in doing that, but we are looking forward to
incorporating that technology to speed the development of
roadable aircraft. Metallic foam is another
attractive option that is early in the development stages, but
it could be an attractive option for sandwiched construction in
the future. And evolved carbon fiber
structures, they're going to continue to get lighter and
better, and a lot of us have heard about the potential of
carbon nanotubes and their strength capabilities.
So continuing on weight, how does technology help us make a
light airplane? Well, we have two examples on
the screen. Example on the left is just to
show you what can be done in solid modeling.
This is a relatively affordable program.
It works relatively quickly. It's the one we use.
And it greatly speeds the design cycles.
It gives you good documentation, and it gives you a platform for
optimizing for weight. The image on the right is an
example of using some finite element software to identify the
stresses in the vehicle under key loading situations.
You can see we have simplified the tail surfaces and the wing
to simply model their reaction forces.
In this case, it's for a one-wheel, nose-down landing at
2.5 Gs which is something that is at the edge of the operating
envelope for the vehicle we're working on.
But we use that to quickly identify the high stress areas
and to optimize the structure, to solve the structural problems
with a minimum amount of weight. So another big challenge in
roadable aircraft is cost. We have two main innovative
approaches that we use to keep the cost of our vehicle down.
The first is to simplify the licensing and registration of
the vehicle. Now, this seems pretty
straightforward, but we just kind of like to say these are
the decisions that get made in order to control the cost.
We make an experimental amateur built kit aircraft that is the
low-cost solution, and that is one of the innovative things
that we bring to the table in the realm of roadable aircraft.
Furthermore, it's a reverse trike that's registered as a
motorcycle. Being registered as a motorcycle
for ground operation is less cumbersome than trying to
license a four-wheel automobile. The next innovation we use to
keep cost down is looking for high volume, off the shelf
components. In our particular case, that's a
generic innovation. In our particular case, we use
motorcycle engine, drive train, suspension, lights, etc.
Exhaust is another big one. So, what that does is it gives
us a pre-engineered high power to weight power plant with all
of the additional mechanics that we need for road operation.
And it has the added benefit of meeting all the regulations for
the highway patrol, for the Department of Motor Vehicles, as
well as the EPA in the case of the exhaust.
So, that saves us time and money and effort in developing
something custom because Kawasaki, in our case, has
already done that for us. We also use an automotive
front end. In our instance, we use the
fronts wheel and brakes and suspension from a Smart For Two.
Now, while that is over designed, again, it saves us the
development time and customization and comes
pre-engineered. Has the additional benefit of
being DOT approved. Now, there are lighter weight
options to consider as well. For example, the old
Mini Coopers. There's a strong club community
that is making custom parts that could be smaller and lighter.
So we are always looking to improve.
Continuing with the cost and using the off the shelf
automotive engine, we do want to discuss how it is that we use
that engine successfully. So, we focus on using it as is
without doing any conversion. As an experimental aircraft it's
simpler to do that. For example, the engine has a
single ignition source. It doesn't have dual magnetos
and dual plugs. As an experimental aircraft,
it's not required to. Now, also, by not converting it,
it means we are leaving the transmission in place.
So we attach the propeller drive system to the existing factory
power interface output. The output shaft from the
motorcycle at this location here, we simply put a shaft
extension and a clutch system to drive either the wheel or
propeller. So, vibration aside, the engine
and transmission is spinning the same shaft it does in either car
mode or in airplane mode. Now, we acknowledge that there
is complexity in weight in that mechanical drive system.
And, of course, we are all looking forward to the day
when aircraft are electric. So we are keeping the eye on the
electric potential and how it applies to roadable aircraft.
Full electric opens a wide door by allowing you to put your
motor where the power needs to be.
So some day you could have a two-motor vehicle with a motor
for the propeller and a motor for the wheel and drive it with
batteries. Now, we're not quite there yet
in the roadable aircraft arena because weight is so important,
and it's a little harder to fold a motor glider into a roadable
application. So we look forward to that day,
but we're not waiting for it. More immediately, we would
consider serial hybrid application for the roadable
aircraft where you could use electric motors and electric
generators that could compete with the weight cost and
reliability of a mechanical drive system.
So how has technology improved safety?
There are people that are more expert on this than I am, but
it's an important thing to mention here.
We have modern electronics, we have glass cockpits, we have new
avionics, and the aim for them is to improve the safety for all
aircraft. And in many instances it saves
weight as well. In the particular application of
roadable aircraft, it can confirm for you that the flight
surfaces are extended and your locking pins are in place and
you don't hit the wrong switch at the wrong time and cause
something bad to happen. Furthermore, the development of
complete airframe parachutes provide additional assurance,
especially for roadable aircraft where you have transforming
components that, as a pilot, you know the term of the pins that
hold the wings on, and the less of those you have, the better.
So, when you have a couple extra, it's nice to have the
assurance of the airframe parachute.
All right, at this point I would like to show you a video that
documents the history of our development.
Now, this one is not, there's no music for this one so I, whoa, I
apologize for the quality there. Let me see if I can restart
that. It is running native.
That's not what I want. Well, I'm afraid we will have to
live with this. So in 2007 we started with the
design concept, and it focused on this type of platform where
it looks like an airplane. We modeled this in X-Plane 8
just to give us the confidence that if you make an airplane
that looks like an airplane, it flies like an airplane.
The next step is to figure out how to build it in real life
that meets the same shape and size of that.
So we started construction of a full scale mockup in 2008,
bought the new motorcycle, enlisted the help of friends and
family to construct the full scale mockup to bring it here to
AirVenture. So this is learning full scale
construction techniques. Bringing it to the show.
Okay, very good. Bringing it to the show to show
people the concept and get feedback, get input, and to
demonstrate that it is straightforward for one person
for fold out a full scale set of wings and fold out and extend a
full scale tail. So, while this hardware is full
size and roughly flight weight, it was never designed to carry
flight loads. It was never intended to be
functional. So this was a learning
experience and a demonstration mockup for showing how to turn
an airplane into a car. Or, in this case, a motorcycle
as it is a reverse three-wheeled configuration.
So you'll notice I had a helper there, my dad, to do the pins at
the wing root. In the production version, in
fact in the prototype version we're working on now, that will
be done remotely from the wing tip.
You'll have a control to lock that last bit.
So, following all the feedback we got here at AirVenture, we
proceeded into the detailed design of the functional
prototype. So this is kind of the thought
process and design process in starting from the motorcycle and
building up around it a roadable aircraft.
The next step was to start work on the construction of the
functional prototype. So the gussets here were water
jet cut, and these were machine to print.
We had friends and family help with the construction process.
So all of this occurred in early 2010.
And here's the build up of the fuselage trusses on the table
Again, enlisting the help of family.
My favorite picture. Mating it around the motorcycle
and adding cross braces. That's our patented control
system. Wiring the electronics for the
motorcycle because we use all the donor parts, the headlights,
the tachometer, speedometer, turn signals, etc.
So we had to stretch the wires to get where they needed to be.
This is the display we had here in 2008.
Again, just coming back, showing everyone the progress and where
we had gotten. In 2011, we made modifications
to stiffen the fuselage and continue adding the CHP
requirements, such as wheel fenders.
So we get a one-day permit from the DMV to drive to the brake
and light inspector. They ask for one change and that
was to angle the lights accordingly so they pointed in
the direction they needed to. We got out license plate and
began test driving at the end of last year and beginning of this
year. So this is some of the early
test drive video. You'll notice the front end is
relatively open at this stage. The banners on the side give
thanks to our volunteers, supporters, and partners.
And then added a dashboard feature, a panel, windshield,
the body work on the nose, the side including the scoops, and
we ended up with the roadable version.
Here we have added the mockup tail and a mockup propeller
location in order to show people as we're driving it that this is
a roadable aircraft and not just a three-wheeled motorcycle.
So we'll make sure that a clean version of this is available on
the website. So it has been very enjoyable to
drive this in traffic. And as you can see, it handles
tight spaces and tight turns just fine.
So this is a very open development process.
We've been here to AirVenture three times now, and we love to
keep you up-to-date with what we're doing.
And, as you can see, we are doing it out in public, on the
public roads. All right.
That's also showing in our booth over across the way.
All right, so just a little graphical summary of the video
you just saw. We started here at AirVenture in
2008 with the full scale mockup. That led to the street legal
prototype fuselage in 2011. Of course, I stole this picture
from 2012 when we were in the Fourth of July parade just north
of LAX. And the next step is, with the
continued support of volunteers, supporters, partners, and
sponsors, to get to the first flight.
And then with the help of AeroInnovate and the Space
Angels Network and organizations like that to take us from first
flight to first kit as a business.
The question mark on the 2014 is an indication of the speed at
which this happens depends on the level of support and
participation we get from the rest of the team.
So, a glimpse of the future. We've learned a lot in doing
this single-seat prototype. So, what we do is incorporate
the lessons we've learned into the two-seat design.
So, that's a picture of it in the flight mode, or I should say
this is a picture of a possible incarnation in flight mode and
in ground mode. Some of the things you see we
are addressing in terms of focusing on weight would be a
strut braced wing with a single pivot location.
In terms of customer requirements, this is a
two-seater. Still based on the motorcycle
platform. It's still a reverse
three-wheeler. It's still a kit.
We look forward to the day when we get to focus on this design.
We'll also have a welded steel tube frame in that one.
So, in closing, I would like to say this innovation is for you,
the home builder And we invite you to participate today at the
website www.Caravella.aero So, at this time, I would like
to open the floor to any questions.
Yes, sir. >> I'm curious, what government
of regulations do you find... [INAUDIBLE]
The question was in regards to the regulations
that are greatest impediment to roadable aircraft.
Well, it depends on what your design looks like.
If you have four wheels, there are greater impediments than if
your vehicle has three wheels, specifically in the road going
arena. In the aircraft arena, if you're
experimental it widely opens the design space.
So if you try to meet, let's say, the light sport
classification, then you have a very difficult weight challenge.
If you try to go type 23 certified aircraft, then you
have a very large cost challenge.
I think that's about the sum of it.
Yes, sir. >> What kind of speed to you
project on this? >> Okay, good question.
Projected speed. The first qualification I'll
give to that is we're really focusing on proof of concept.
So we haven't focused heavily on performance figures.
This was originally thought to try to get into light sport, but
we weren't promising it because of the stringent nature of it.
So, where this evolves to for the prototype is we expect a
stall speed of around 52 knots, which is a little higher than
light sport. We expect a cruise speed around
100 knots. So let's say, depending on how
well you fair the front end, between 90 and 100 knots.
And, yeah, that's kind of the answer to that question.
[INAUDIBLE] We have incorporated in the
design from day one a ballistic recovery system that's located
in the front decel of the wing. Well, actually, it's not a decel
because the spar is the primary carry through structure.
So between the spar and the back of the headrest is where the
ballistic recovery system sits. And it is the insurance policy.
Yes. [INAUDIBLE]
All right, the question is, what is the range of the
prototype vehicle? Or I should say, what is the
range of the vehicle design? It was originally sized
for a 16-gallon tank. Right now, to save weight, we've
gone down to 14.5 gallons, which should give us roughly 3 hours
of range at 100 knots would be 300 nautical miles.
Yes, sir. >> Have you driven it in bad
weather yet? >> Have we driven it in bad
weather? No.
It has not been driven in bad weather yet.
It has been sprinkled on, but if you saw in the video, the roof
is not installed yet so it has not been in the deluge that we
had here yesterday. With the tail mounted on it,
we have driven it in wind conditions, mountains and
passes, at the end of the runway where we have ocean crosswind,
crosswind for me but it's down the runway for airplanes.
So we're beginning to explore those environments.
All right, well thank you very much for your attention and
time, and if you have any further questions,
we're just behind you. Thank you.
[APPLAUSE]