Novel Conceptual Designs for Stopped-Rotor Aerial Vehicles and Other High-Speed Rotorcraft

The objective of this paper is to present some novel vertical lift aircraft design concepts that hold potential for high-speed (greater than or equal to 400 knots) flight but still provide for efficient hover and vertical takeoff and landing capabilities. The pursuit of a high-speed rotorcraft has periodically captured the attention of rotorcraft researchers for decades. In the late 1990’s to early 2000’s, NASA sponsored several high-speed rotorcraft studies. A few recent works have begun to outline novel high-speed rotorcraft concepts that have been largely unexplored so far. This paper discusses four such novel concepts: two stopped-rotor concepts and two non-stopped-rotor concepts.