American Dynamics Flight Systems will wind tunnel test the ducted-fan propulsion system for its proposed AD-150 vertical-takeoff-and-landing unmanned aircraft with support from the University of Maryland (UMD).

The university’s Maryland Industrial Partnerships (MIPS) program has approved $135,150 in funding to test a scale model of the company’s patented High Torque Aerial Lift (HTAL) system in a tunnel at UMD.

“We get to work with UMD and the state provides 90 percent of the funding,” says Wayne Morse, American Dynamics president and CEO.

In 2009, the company conducted wind tunnel testing of a 3/10th-scale model of the AD-150 at UMD with funding support from MIPS. The AD-150 is a 500-pound-payload, 300-knot-cruise VTOL design aimed at the U.S. Marine Corps’ Group 4 requirement for an expeditionary unmanned aircraft.

The HTAL is a shaft-driven ducted fan that provides vertical lift, directional control and propulsion. The swiveling nacelles are mounted at the tips of the AD-150’s wing, with the fans driven from a turboshaft engine mounted in the fuselage.

The ducts tilt fore and aft together for pitch control, but independently left and right for lateral control, according to technical development director Paul Vasilescu.

The model to be used at UMD will be 1/3-1/2 scale, and will be tested at different fan speeds, duct angles and tunnel speeds representative of the transition between vertical and horizontal flight. The experimental data will be used to validate computational models, he says.

Jessup, Md.-based American Dynamics also is completing fabrication of an “iron-bird” ground rig that will be used for static testing of the full-scale propulsion system. This will comprise a 1,200 shp T53 turboshaft, transmission, drive train and 38-inch diameter ducted fans, laid out as if in the aircraft.

Wind tunnel testing of the ducted fan is planned within four to six months, Vasilescu says, with the iron-bird rig testing to be completed this year at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland.

American Dynamics is using a combination of private equity and MIPS funding, he says, to raise the technology readiness level of the AD-150 in a bid to interest the Marine Corps in picking up the project for further development.

The Pentagon’s 30-year aviation plan, released last week, says the Marine Corps is to begin procurement of the Group 4 unmanned aircraft in Fiscal 2018.

Photo: American Dynamics Flight Systems