Carter PAV - Development

Development

When the CarterCopter crashed in 2005, the cost of repair was deemed higher than the cost of making a new aircraft with the added benefit of incorporating lessons learned from the first aircraft. Design of the PAV was begun during 2005. Several changes and development problems occurred along the way; twin boom was deemed unnecessary, so a single boom was constructed, and flaws in rotor blades and hub were revealed during testing and then corrected.

On November 16, 2009 the AAI Corporation (a division of Textron) signed a 40-year exclusive license agreement with the company concerning all unmanned aircraft systems, one of which is intended to deliver 3000 pounds of cargo similar to the unmanned Kaman K-MAX, but over a future range of 1300 nautical miles compared to the demonstrated 150 nautical miles (280 km) or more of the K-MAX. The agreement commits CarterCopters to developing the technology to maturity, in exchange for exclusive rights to develop UAVs for the next 40 years. The first product in the AAI agreement is an autonomous slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) aircraft to be based on the Carter Personal Air Vehicle.

"Critical Design Review" (CDR) for AAI Corporation was performed around January 2010 when the prototype was already being built. Usually a CDR is performed before a vehicle is built.

It was Taxi run in Autumn 2010 at Olney Airport after FAA Special Airworthiness Certificate on July 27, 2010, and performed traffic pattern movement on December 2, 2010, piloted by Larry Neal at the controls and co-pilot Robert Luna. Larry Neal was also one of the pilots of the CarterCopter at Olney in 2005.

The first flight occurred on January 5, 2011 at Olney without wings and lasted 36 minutes, which qualified Carter for a milestone payment.

Carter stated that the PAV performed its first zero-roll jump take-off on January 18, 2011, to a height of 120 feet. Eight jump take-offs were performed. There are some electrical issues with the aircraft, and it is not in volume production.

The PAV flew traffic patterns with wings at Olney in January 2012, and has since flown winged test flights.

As of June 2012, development of the PAV is a year behind schedule due to various technical problems, and Carter has requested funding from the Wichita Falls Economic Development Corporation. Carter views the lack of a PAV flight simulator as a mistake, and attempts to build one. The previous CarterCopter was designed using a flight simulator.

Carter says that the PAV has a Lift to drag ratio of 10, and has flown at an advance ratio of 0.85.