Aviation engineering and technology company CoFlow Jet has entered a Joint Ownership Agreement with NASA to commercialize the Deflected Slip-Stream (DSS) technology enabled by its coflow jet (CFJ) airfoil technology.

DSS facilitates vertical takeoff and landing as well as hovering and cruising without tilt rotors, tilt wings or lift plus. CoFlow Jet’s CFJ technology is composed of an active-flow control airfoil with micro-compressors mounted inside the airfoil that vacuum air into the trailing edge and then inject it near the leading edge, tangential to the main air flow.

CoFlow Jet’s CFJ technology was tested in a DARPA-funded wind tunnel experiment, and the company says a preliminary design of the overall vehicle is complete.

“We are developing advanced fully electric vertical and short takeoff and landing (eV/STOL) vehicles using DSS enabled by CFJ, which will make urban transportation and eCommerce economically viable,” said CoFlow Jet CEO and University of Miami Professor Dr. Gecheng Zha. “Tilt rotors, tilt wings and lift plus may soon be part of history. Such a vehicle could also be used on Mars, as it could generate a nearly 10 times higher cruise lift coefficient compared to existing fixed-wing aircraft, making it the most effective vehicle not only here on Earth but also on Mars where the air density is one-hundredth that of Earth.”

Source: Green Car Congress