(This article reprinted with permission of NASA Tech Transfer Center (NTTC).)

Jay Carter Jr., who is defying the impossible with his CarterCopter, a fixed-wing/rotary- wing aircraft (gyroplane) he says will take off vertically and cruise at more than 400 mph, is receiving enthusiastic support from NASA. Carter, president of CarterCopters Inc. of Wichita Falls, Texas, has spent the past two years not only designing and developing the CarterCopter gyroplane but convincing skeptics that it indeed will fly. NTTC referred Carter to the Mid-Continent Regional Technology Transfer Center in Texas. NTTC officials assessed the commercialization potential of the CarterCopter. A project manager with aerospace expertise from a sister Regional Technology Transfer Center, the Center for Technology Commercialization in Massachusetts, was called in to meet with Carter.

Although initially skeptical, the project manager became the company's most enthusiastic supporter and facilitated a relationship between NASA's Ames Research Center in California and CarterCopters for development of Carter's gyroplane. Carter said Ames officials were so enthusiastic about the aircraft, they convinced him to apply for a NASA Small Business Innovation Research grant. NASA announced in the fall that it was awarding Carter $70,000.

Wally Acree, aerospace engineer in the Rotorcraft Aeromechanics Branch at Ames, said "The CarterCopter is exactly the kind of forward-thinking innovative project that SBIR is all about. NASA has designed the SBIR program to provide small companies with innovative projects funding with less paperwork and other government constraints." Carter said he is looking for more investors for his CarterCopter which would speed up greatly the prototyping and development process.

More investors would allow him to hire full-time his "dream team." Carter hopes to fly his CarterCopter for the first time in December l996 though it could take up to two years to realize his dream if funding is limited. He said he hopes to license eventually the CarterCopters technology to five or six companies worldwide in three areas: complete certified vehicles, kitplanes and rotor technology, components and systems. "The CarterCopter will go faster than the world speed record for helicopters at 249 mph. We're going to build prototypes, develop the technology and go out and hit corporate chiefs over the head with world records. We would be able to reach those goals sooner with more funding," Carter said.

The CarterCopter combines vertical takeoff and landing of a helicopter with the speed and altitude capabilities of a fixed-wing aircraft. It may revive general aviation because it can take off and land on a building roof or parking lot and travel at high speeds, cutting travel time significantly. It also can travel at high altitudes for long-range economy. "This first aircraft is designed to take five people from downtown Los Angeles and fly nonstop at 400 miles an hour at 45,000 feet across the country and land in downtown New York City," Carter said.

Most corporate airplanes have gas turbine engines, Carter says. and generally don't fly over 25,000 feet because of the loss in turbine power. The CarterCopter uses a compound turbo piston engine--one turbo for high pressure and one for low pressure--that allows the aircraft to fly at 45,000 feet. The CarterCopter can sustain a high rate of speed because air at that altitude is one-fifth as dense as air at sea level, Carter said.

The true source of Carter's aviation revolution is an ultra-high inertia rotor that permits vertical takeoffs as high as 100 feet and a small wing that reduces required power because it allows the rotor to be unloaded and slowed down. The CarterCopter also has no "deadman" zone that impedes safety for conventional single engine helicopters because the rotor is always in autorotation and is never powered in flight.

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