Aeromobile Inc.

Aeronautical Pioneers

The Turbine Arc Wing VTOL

Airplane

The first and only vertical take off

and landing (VTOL), 350 mph
airplane for General Aviation.

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 1

 What Is Unique about this VTOL Airplane?

It will provide true point to point transportation, “as the crow

1.
flies”, having vertical take off and landing capabilities.

It will travel at 350+ mph in cruise mode, with an 800 mile

2.
range.

It is mechanically simple - much simpler than helicopters or

3.
tiltrotors - and will cost no more than other turboprop GA
aircraft to build. And, it will require much less maintenance
than any rotocraft.

It will be flyable by fixed wing pilots, since it is an airplane,

4.
and will handle like an airplane.

Its manufacturing and maintenances costs will be moderate –

5.
similar to those of current turboprop airplanes – and far less
than helicopters or tilt rotor aircraft.

Original Small Scale Model of Arc

Wing VTOL, side view, held by
inventor, William Bertelsen, MD.

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 2

The Arc Wing VTOL Airplane is
absolutely unique in being a true
VTOL as a fixed wing aircraft with
the high cruise speed (300 + knots).
The Arc Wing VTOL Airplane
requires only the basic elements of
fixed wing aircraft for VTOL or
cruise flight, namely, full-span flaps
and high installed power (turbines
engines) usable in both VTOL and
cruise. It has no need for heavy,
costly, encumbering systems for
conversion from one realm to
another, no multiple rotors, no rotor
folding devices, no cross shafting, no
extra gear boxes, no "black boxes" for
Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006
programming, no wing tip or tail jets,
no tail rotors, no lift fans or lift
engines. It is a fixed wing pilot's
airplane. flown like a fixed wing
airplane. with no need for rotor craft
training. It utilizes the elegant
technique of deflecting the
propeller generated slipstream
downwards for takeoff and landing,
quite simple mechanically, and
therefore efficient. The inherent
aerodynamic properties of fixed wing
aircraft are both preserved and
employed for both fast speed and
vertical operations.
Original Small Scale Model of
Arc Wing VTOL hovering on
tether in waiting room of
physician/inventor, William
Bertelsen, MD.
Page: 3
 What Can the Arc Wing VTOL Airplane Do?

It can be used to do anything needed of a General

Aviation craft, having both the high speed of turboprop
airplanes and the vertical take off and landing abilities of
helicopters.

1. Corporate aircraft, 4 to 24 passengers, to go from corporate

vertipad to any other vertipad located in urban downtowns
or suburban areas.
2. Private General Aviation aircraft, 4 to 8 passengers, for
completely flexible point to point flying.
3. Commuter aircraft to and from city centers, rather than
airport to airport, from 4 to 20 passengers. This is True Point
to Point Air Taxi Service
4. Air ambulance
5. Emergency rescue, evacuation, disaster supply, relief
6. Bush operations
7. Agricultural spraying
8. Off-shore oil rig crew boat for Arctic and Temperate
operations.
9. Law enforcement, drug traffic control, and illegal entry
surveillance
10. Fire fighting, rescue from high-rise building and towers.
11. Ship to shore cargo, personnel, and mail delivery.

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 4

 Four Passenger Turbine Arc Wing VTOL
Design Specifications
(Comparable to the Beechcraft King Air)

Empty weight 2,500 lbs.

Max take off Weight 5,376 lbs.
Pay load: Four passengers plus baggage (1,000
lbs)

Length 15 feet
Width 18 feet (horizontal canard span)
Height 10 feet
Span 14 feet
Dual Rotating Propeller Diameter 16 feet

Fuel capacity 384 Gallons

Fuel weight 978 Lbs.

Engines:
Pratt Whitney PT6A-135 550 h.p. Each (weigh 338 lbs.)

Inspection interval 3,600 hours

Speed Zero to 370 knots

Range 1,000 miles

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 5

 24 Foot wingspan ultralight of Arc Wing VTOL from the rear
Efficiency Advantages
A. Large diameter dual rotating
propellers with great disc area
accelerating a huge mass of air at lower
velocity makes for greater efficiency.
B. Dual rotation propellers are estimated
by Hamilton Standard and others to be
8% to 9% more efficient.
C. Arc Wing VTOL Airplane will have a
lighter air frame for the following
reasons:
1. Closer coupled design.
2. The arc wing and flaps are
Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006
principally under tension loading
and can be of very thin 100%
composite structure. Similarly, the
canard surfaces and tail can be of
composite, possibly wood-epoxy
saturation technique.
3. The arc wing has inherent end
plates (no need for vertical
winglets) and therefore increased
effective span enabling design of
very short span equal to, or less
than, propeller diameter with
consequent lower drag and lighter
weight.
Page: 6
D. Arc Wing VTOL Airplane will be
smaller for a given payload.
1. Less wetted area in cruise
(dramatically less if tailless)
2. Smaller landing area required,
even less than needed for a
helicopter of the same capacity,
saving on land use.
3. Smaller hangar space is required
than for fixed wing as the short
span arc wing and flaps tilt down
aft to lower overhead clearance
required, and the tail (if any) will
fold forward. A two-car garage at
home may be adequate for
personal aircraft.
E. Zero pitching moment quality of the
Arc Wing VTOL Airplane arc wing
reduces negative lift and induced drag
for angle of incidence fixation by the
rearward horizontal tail. Using fore-aft
shift of the center of lift (C.L.), to
maintain the wing angle of incidence
may require no positive lift from
horizontal canards, also eliminating
induced drag.

24 Foot wingspan ultralight in flight, piloted by William D. Bertelsen, son

of the inventor.

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 7

Demonstration of the pitch stability of the arc wing in a fan slipstream with the wing
pivot point about mid chord. In the top photo, the wing assumes a 36-degree angle of
incidence. Even at 36 degrees angle of incidence, the tufts are attached.

Here the arc wing is rearward of the transverse, spanwise center line pivot point,
causing arc wing to assume 80 degree angle of incidence as “parachute mode”, with all
tufts detached. The fan is running in both photos. This research is being performed by
Dr. Betelsen's son, William D. Bertlsen

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 8

 Safety Advantages
A. The Arc Wing VTOL Airplane as a
fixed wing aircraft will have fewer
fatalities per 100,000 hours of operation
incurred by the helicopter as shown by
accident statistics.
B. The ability to fly slowly or hover,
back up, move sideways, and resist
gusts increases safety in poor visibility
and high winds.
C. The mechanical simplicity of the Arc
Wing VTOL Airplane diminishes the
chance for failure of components. Twin
turbine engines driving centerline thrust
propellers avoid the known hazards of
conventional twins.
With twin engines each driving the
power train the failure of one engine in
cruise assures continued flight at lower
speed to either CTOL or STOL landing
at or near destination. Single engine
failure in vertical landing in a small
space is handled by putting the nose
down, and find an alternate larger field
for STOL or CTOL landing. Single
engine failure in vertical takeoff
converts to CTOL. The pilot quickly
(and instinctively) puts the nose down;
the craft will climb out at a steep but not
vertical angle to find a larger field for
STOL or CTOL landing for servicing.
D. The Arc Wing VTOL Airplane
requires no programming for
conversion from VTOL or STOL to
cruise or back to VTOL or STOL.
Conventionally conditioned response
and techniques ingrained in all pilots
are adequate to fly the Arc Wing VTOL
Airplane through all realms of flight
and in all emergencies. In contrast, the
helicopter, tilt rotor, Harrier, tilt fan,
deflected jet, or jet-blown wing aircraft
require very special and often
"unnatural" pilot response and training.

Front view of electric powered force test

model to measure the amount of deflected
slipstream air.

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 9

 Comparison of the Arc Wing VTOL Airplane to the
Helicopter
The helicopter, the paradigm for vertical
flight; it is the best aerial crane, but has
limited cruise speed and range. The
huge rotor lifts great weight, but the
rotor moving longitudinally in cruise is
very slow and inefficient. There is
further loss of efficiency in the power
for the tail rotor that is of zero benefit
except to counter torque and provide
yaw control. Helicopters require special
rotorcraft training.
The forward motion of the helicopter
rotor requires cyclic pitch change as the
rotor revolves; high pitch on the
retreating blade; low pitch on the
advancing blade, resulting in noise,
vibration, and fatigue of blades. The
absolute limit on top speed of the
helicopter is the velocity of that
advancing blade. The advancing blade
moves faster than the helicopter, which
can never catch up.
The low speed of the helicopter, the
short range, the requirement of special
rotorcraft training, and the high price
limits the availability of helicopters to
many that need vertical flight. There
were far too few of the costly helicopters
(@ one million dollars per month) for the
recent tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the
Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006
Gulf hurricanes of 2005, and the
horrendous earth quake in Pakistan.
In contrast, to the helicopter, the
Arcopter VTOL will take-off and land
vertically, will have 300-knot speed,
double the range, and will cost far less.
Fixed wing pilots without rotorcraft
training can fly the Arcopter VTOL. The
Arcopter VTOL slipstream is directed
horizontally and totally engages the arc
wing and flaps to effectively deflect it
down for lift. Thrust in the Arcopter
VTOL is oriented for cruise vs. the
helicopter's thrust oriented vertically
only for lift. The Arcopter VTOL in
vertical flight has a mere 10% or less loss
of thrust in 70 degree turning of the
slipstream. There is no tail rotor to
waste power. In cruise, the turning of
the slipstream is about 6 degrees, the
same as any airplane. And in cruise, the
arc wing Arcopter VTOL is more
efficient than a straight wing aircraft,
and far more efficient than the
helicopter in both VTOL and in cruise.
Not only it there no tail rotor in the
Arcopter VTOL, but the dual rotating
propellers are 8% more efficient than
single rotating props, and cancel all
torque without penalty.
Page: 10
The whole business of fast, long range,
low cost VTOL aircraft is summed up by
an article by Claudia H. Deutsch in the
New York Times of November 30, 2004,
"Pilots and Makers of Copters Defy the
Aviation Slump", she says, "If helicopter
manufacturers ever break the price and
speed barriers, though, most experts say
new uses for helicopter will take off. For
now, a helicopter that carries just eight
passengers can cost $8 million to $10
million, while one big enough to carry 19
can exceed $16 million. Moreover, the
fastest helicopters rarely exceed 145 miles
an hour or range much farther than 450
miles. But once helicopters fly at 250 miles
an hour, they will compete with scheduled
commuter and private jet services. If that
happens, the demand for machines, and for
Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006
people to fly and fix them, could boom."
According to these figures, helicopters
cost about one million per passenger.
It will not be a helicopter (nor an
autogyro) that flies at 250 miles an
hour or ranges over 450 miles; it will be
a fixed wing Arcopter VTOL that will
fly at over 345 miles an hour (300
knots), that will range 800 miles, and
that will sell for around one million
dollars. And it and will be flown by
ordinary pilots. The Arc Wing VTOL
will compete with, not only
helicopters, but with scheduled
commuter and private jets, including
the new Very Light Jets (VLJ's), buses,
mass transit trains, and the automobile.
This chart shows that 90
percent of the slipstream is
captured and deflected
downwards for vertical
operations. This maximum
efficiency occurs when one
flap is utilized with the Arc
Wing (the top line on the
chart).
Page: 11
 Comparison of drag Polar for three
wings, filled arc wing, planar wing,
and semi hollow arc wing. One of
the many graphs derived from the
Western Michigan University wind
tunnel tests showing CL/CD ratio of
the three test wings, and the
superior performance of the Arc
Wing.

How to Reach Us

Aeromobile Inc.
2720 31st Ave.
Rock Island, IL 61201
USA

309-786-7086
www.aeromobile.com
arcwingvtol@aeromobile.com

Arc Wing VTOL Airplane, September 2006 Page: 12