The Ultimate Goal in designing a fixed wing VTOL aircraft is to be able to take off and land vertically and still have both a smooth transition to a high cruise speed and a long range of flight.
This is what the AMV-211 Aircraft is all about. The ultimate freedom of flight is to be able to fly your plane without the need for an airport.
Melkuti’s ungainly aircraft drew crowds when he showed it off last year at the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Some stared in disbelief, unsure if it was a serious design or, well, a joke. Others pictured the AMV 211 sitting in their driveway.
Indeed, if it works—and that’s a big “if”—the aircraft could usher in the long-awaited era of personal VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft, vehicles cheap enough for average Americans to buy and basic enough for them to operate from their homes. Although the list of failed attempts to create such aircraft is long, Melkuti feels that the time is finally ripe. “Now that we have technologies like composite construction, lighter engines and GPS,” he says, “the field should mushroom.”
Melkuti, 48, a rock-solid weightlifter with salt-and-pepper temples, studied aeronautical engineering in his native Yugoslavia. After college, he worked on jets at a Yugoslavian aircraft builder, then
Instead of a jet engine or propeller, the AMV 211 relies on a ducted fan—in this case, a single 94-inch horizontally mounted fan enclosed around its perimeter and powered by a modified 450hp Mazda rotary engine. For transition to forward flight, louvers under the fan direct the thrust rearward, and the vehicle flies pitched about 26 degrees from its takeoff position. This places pilot and passenger into forward-facing positions and places the wings and rear tail controls in the airstream.
Melkuti has been plagued by engine problems, most recently when an air intake manifold cracked. He fixed the power plant and has moved the aircraft to a local airport for hover tests, which he plans to conduct extensively prior to a free-flight at low altitude. “It’s the greatest thing in America, that you have the freedom to design and build any aircraft you want,” he enthuses.
Forecast: Cloudy
Apart from Melkuti himself, few believe his craft will fly. Even if it manages to rise off the ground, control problems could send it tumbling in an instant. “Fundamentally, what he’s trying to do is very difficult and potentially very dangerous,” says fellow visionary and professional aerodynamicist Barnaby Wainfan, whose own aircraft, the Facetmobile, has had its share of ups and downs. “He seems like a very nice guy. I hope he doesn’t hurt himself.”
