Abstract: An aircraft comprises an airframe, an electric propulsion system, a number of battery pods, and an engagement system. The number of battery pods has a physical connector system. The engagement system is attached to the airframe and is capable of engaging the physical connector system to connect the number of battery pods to the airframe.

Abstract: A method of generating lift for a vehicle including heating a flow of gas using a gas generator mounted on the vehicle that contributes no more than about ten percent of thrust used to propel the vehicle in a forward direction, and driving a lift fan using the heated gas flow to generate lift for the vehicle.

Abstract: An airship comprises a shell having a bi-convex shape, wherein the shell encompasses a volume, and a gas storage system located within the volume.

Abstract: Lofting of a Blended Wing Body air vehicle is accomplished by first determining the required payload volume of the air vehicle. The payload volume is then analyzed to determine a list of corner points of the payload volume. The list of points is passed to a Loft Module as keep-out points and a body portion of the blended wing body is established using a faceted minimum volume which encloses all of the provided keep-out points. A trapezoidal wing shape and size is then determined to accommodate aerodynamic performance requirements. A leading edge of the body portion and trapezoidal wing leading edge are trimmed and a trailing edge of the body portion and trapezoidal wing trailing edge are blended. A leading edge elevation is established and with leading edge radius as an input all other point coordinates and all tangents and remaining curvatures to smoothly enclose the payload volume in a first set of aerodynamic sections are defined.

Abstract: Aircraft having thrust vectoring for switchably providing upper surface blowing. The aircraft generally includes a wing and an engine. The engine can be rotatably supported to supporting structure to allow the engine to be controllably rotated relative to the wing, and/or the engine can include a thrust vectoring nozzle. The engine's thrust vectoring capabilities allow the exhaust flow to be controllably vectored to switch on or off upper surface blowing depending on the aircraft's phase of operation. During a first phase, the exhaust flow can be vectored to flow across the upper wing surface to provide upper surface blowing to augment lift. During a second phase, the exhaust flow can be discharged generally downstream or rearwardly. The engine is positioned relative to the wing such that the exhaust flow does not provide upper surface blowing during the second phase.