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Jaunt Air Mobility was selected from 218 competitors to compete in the AFWERX High Speed Vertical Take-off and Landing (HSVTOL) Concept Challenge, narrowed to 35 challengers. The HSVTOL Concept Challenge partnership is with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM). The MAV55 Multi-Mission Air Vehicle brings the speed and capabilities of a fixed-wing aircraft combined with Jaunt’s highly efficient and patented slowed rotor compound (SRC) technology.
The USAF and USSOCOM are seeking to leverage new and innovative technologies. “Having worked within USSOCOM in Rotary Wing Special Operation Forces during my military service, our team fully understands the mission requirements of infiltration and exfiltration, personnel recovery, aeromedical evacuation, and tactical mobility, at jet-like speeds. These are the core fundamentals we applied in designing the MAV55. Still, we’ve also added the elements of lower acoustic signatures and minimal downwash in hover operations,” stated Jesse Crispino, Chief Operations Officer for Jaunt Air Mobility.
Jaunt Air Mobility SRC enabling technologies bring advanced capabilities to the military utilizing a single main rotor for hover, takeoff, and landing, and, high aspect ratio, small area wings for flight once aloft. SRC is a suite of technologies that dramatically slows the rotor as the forward airspeed increases and the wings take on the lift reducing drag, noise, and associated vibration. The configuration produces a lift to drag ratio 5x better than a helicopter, as demonstrated during over 300 flight test hours.
SRC isn’t a new concept, but the design complexities were cost and weight-prohibitive when integrated into a hovering solution until electrification and hybridization. Jaunt teamed with VerdeGo Aero for this proposal to utilize a version of their proprietary electric/hybrid drive system already in development and nearing production on a different scale. VerdeGo, as a mission-enabling system, was also one of the companies down-selected by the Air Force to the round of 35.