Future Standard for Business, Entertainment, Living and Travel

A CarterCopter Heliplane Transport (CCH-T) carrying 120 passengers is outbound for another VMH located in a city 400 miles distant. In less than one-hour it will have arrived and unloaded all passengers. After less than 30 minutes total time on the ground, it will quietly depart for yet another VMH. With only six commercial gates and a maximum of 288 flights, over 50,000 people can move though each of these small transportation hubs in a 24-hour period with smooth, quiet efficiency.

CCH-Ts MAKE VMHs POSSIBLE: The concept requires a quiet VTOL aircraft able to haul 120 passengers plus cargo at low cost for 2,000 miles at speeds up to 450 MPH. CCH-Ts will meet these criteria, making possible future VMHs like the one shown. Vertiports will be similar in size to regional shopping centers, sport stadiums and arenas. Therefore, high land values in city-centers will not hinder Vertiport construction. CCH-T travel will cost less per seat / ton-mile than now available because of rotorcraft's large size plus relatively low purchase and maintenance costs. Flight efficiencies in speed, range, altitude and useful load will compare favorably to equivalent size jetliners.

VMH GLOBAL NETWORK: VMHs will form a business, entertainment, living and travel network - first in this country and then throughout the world. They will be created from necessity as commerce expands at an ever- quickening pace. Executive offices, hotels, condos, shopping centers, restaurants, theaters, clubs, casinos (and more) will co-locate with these quiet, efficient mass people movers - to work, live, play and get away.

GLOBAL TRANSPORTATION: The combination of Vertiports, interstate and high-speed rail brought together at VMHs will create the ideal transportation system: one you can use to go anywhere you wish - at a reasonable price - when you want to go. City-center locations will save time and money currently spent just getting to and from major airports. You will still journey to large airports for flights greater than 2,000 miles and may opt to do so from VMHs via CCH-Ts. The large airports will be less crowded due to the success of the VMHs plus the use of 300 to 600 passenger jetliners for the longer trips.

VERTIPORT OPERATIONS 24-7: New GPS navigation systems coupled with ground signals will permit precision approaches for zero visibility landings. CCH-T landing gear, capable of absorbing 50 feet per second landing impacts without damage, will protect the aircraft and passengers against small mistakes (current standard is 7-10 fps). This safety feature will permit around-the-clock operations, seven days a week, in all kinds of weather.

QUIET ROTORCRAFT FLIGHT - INSIDE AND OUT: The CCH-T will provide passengers an environment free of helicopter-type noises and vibrations. Their low disk loading and slowly turning shark-fin tipped props and rotors makes them much quieter than helicopters and tiltrotors. Their ground track will be much quieter than most fixed-wing aircraft. Approach / departure routes will avoid urban and other populated areas, flying low only over bodies of water and the right-of-ways of interstate highways and railroads. This will be possible because of low approach / departure speeds plus the advantage that rotorcraft approach / departure routes are totally independent of wind direction.

QUIET ZERO-ROLL LANDINGS: CCH-Ts will routinely perform whisper-quiet autorotation (gyroplane style) landings - with their engines at idle and with no downwash from their rotors. Just before landing, they will hover briefly and weathervane into the wind regardless of wind direction. This will be possible because of their gyroplane heritage plus the use of their ultra-high-inertia rotors to store power for hovering even with a dead engine. Their slow approach speeds will prevent the loud wind noises from landing gear and flaps that are created by the high-speed landings required of current jetliners. The zero-roll landings will be on landing diamonds located on runways not currently being used for short takeoffs.

QUIET GROUND TAXIING: Immediately after landing the CCH-T's engines will be shut down and its auxiliary power unit (APU) will be used to power a hydrostatic drive to the main gear. The small taxi distances found at Vertiports make this feasible. Hydrostatic drives permit CCH-Ts to be maneuvered very near other CC Heliplanes and parked at the assigned gate without the current noise or prop wash. Departing CCH-Ts will use the drives to quietly taxi to their designated run-up / takeoff circle (see below).

QUICK TURN-A-ROUNDS: Once parked at the gate, CCH-T landing gear will lower the fuselage to ground level, which will greatly speed the unloading / loading of baggage and cargo. Concurrently, dual bridge systems will first exit and then board passengers from the front and rear doors of CCH-Ts at the same time -- cutting the time for this operation in half.

RUN-UP / TAKEOFF CIRCLES: Prerotations of CCH-Ts ultra-high-inertia rotor will be done entirely inside circles surrounded on three sides by sound deflectors and baffles. The wall will lower on the approach side to permit rotorcraft entry. The rotor will overspeed to max RPM and props brought to full power before beginning takeoff roll. An automatic ground hook-up might power electric motors to quietly overspeed the CCH-T rotor.

USE OF SHORT RUNWAYS: Designated runways are used for short takeoff runs of heavily loaded CCH-Ts operating in short-takeoff (STO) mode. STOs (as opposed to vertical takeoffs) greatly increase the CCH-Ts weight lifting ability. An electric-mechanical (flywheel powered) catapult might quietly accelerate CCH-T using STO to 60 MPH.

HIGH-ENERGY TAKEOFFS (HET): The excess stored energy available from overspeeding CC ultra-high-inertia rotors during prerotation permits HETs that stay inside the Vertiport's "footprint" until sufficient altitude is obtained to maximize quietness for surrounding areas. HETs flight paths are directed away from urban and other populated areas - regardless of wind direction. Slower, low-level flights will be restricted to open water and interstate highway or railroad right-of-ways. Wind direction is never a factor.

ILLUSTRATION IS A WORK-IN-PROGRESS: The next revision will include the following:

• Departing CCH-T will display shorter wings, one-piece windshield, and shark-fin rotor-tips and wing tips. Proposed CC gyroplane jetliner will be shown parked at a gate.
• Dual bridges for loading/unloading passengers shown at each gate.
• Runways marked with landing diamonds and smaller centerlines.
• Two additional run-up / takeoff circles (#3 and #4: one at each end of middle runway).
• Run-up / takeoff circles will depict sound deflectors and baffles.