Air Tuk-Tuk
Compact Urban eVTOL
Point-to-Point Transport
Available For License
Pan Spatial Air Tuk-Tuk is a game- or sim-ready textured 3D asset available for immediate exclusive or non-exclusive licensing.
Contact Pan Spatial to learn more.
Air Tuk-Tuk Features
- Compact planform permits operations in confined urban spaces unreachable by conventional rotorcraft
- Not “fast”, but much faster than a traffic jam
- Six or eight large-diameter, hubless Electric Ducted Fans (EDFs) move a lot of air in a small footprint
- Fan pods individually pivot to provide lift, thrust, and maneuverability in all flight phases
- Emergency systems include fast-deploying parachute and ventral airbags
Designer’s Notes
Pan Spatial Designer
Tom Alfaro
When traveling in Thailand, I am always impressed with the multiple layers and modes of transportation intermeshed and utilizing the same roads, intersections and rails.
I found myself daydreaming about ways to design a compact, inexpensive eVTOL vehicle to supplement that mix. The Air Tuk-Tuk is an example of how might occur.
Disruptive Innovation
Most people know a million-dollar hover jet is never going to be a good way to get around town.
Instead, disruptive innovation theory hints that…
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… something like a bicycle or motorcycle that can fly is a more likely place to start
A non-aerospace company will:
- “Borrow” and modify enabling technologies, components, or techniques from a different industry (like batteries or 3D printed materials)
- Cobble together a unique device in a unique manufacturing value chain
- Make it available to people in the middle of the economy who already pay untenable costs (in time, money and hassle) for basic transportation; and in doing so,
- Empower those people to adapt it to do new jobs to improve their own business or livelihood on a near-term basis.
From Here to There (Relatively) Quickly
It doesn’t have to go fast — just faster than a traffic jam. It doesn’t have to go far — less than 11km will get most people clear across town. People should be able to walk to it — without causing another car, train or elevator trip to use it. It should directly utilize existing urban vehicular infrastructure like streets and electricity so it can replace less efficient vehicles, instead of adding another layer on top of them.
Third-Party Use Case Customization
The main things a manufacturer needs to make it do are take off, fly, land, and carry some payload efficiently and safely. Everything else should be left as much as possible to clever add-on manufacturers and new customers, because they have the best expertise and data to figure out which features will facilitate the best risks and opportunities – which they can benefit from on a family or small business scale.
I can type on and on and on about disruptive innovation — how to spot it, and what to do about it. However, I prefer designing concept spaceships and airplanes. So I created the ‘Air Tuk-Tuk’ concept to show you what I mean.
