PyFoil81: Rotorcraft Design Tool Airfoil Table Generator

The Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) Program is exploring an open design space for novel VTOL aircraft configurations. Highly efficient and lightweight electric motors paired with the increasing energy density of batteries are enabling new aircraft concepts such as Distributed Electric Propulsion and eVTOL, which exploit new technologies’ advantages to improve existing missions and enable whole new missions such as Urban Air Mobility. Flight for eVTOLs creates new analytical challenges: rotors are designed with small chord and diameter as well as unconventional twist profiles, and with wider operational RPM and advance ratio ranges, can have larger regions of reversed flow. To meet this departure from traditional rotor aerodynamics in context of the high impact of aeropropulsive efficiency on mission capability, M4 proposes a lightweight Python software, PyFoil81, capable of efficiently analyzing and tabulating airfoil data from a variety of flow regimes. It will efficiently handle user inputs, airfoil rediscretization and modification, API to/from multiple aero solvers, and a data blending tool to create composite C81 airfoil data tables from various data sources. PyFoil81 is a proposed Python-based framework to generate C81-formatted airfoil data tables from multiple sources. The Revolutionary Vertical Lift Technology (RVLT) Project requires accurate and robust airfoil tables for the analysis of vertical lift aircraft configurations. Rotors for eVTOL design push deep into unusual analysis regions; wide variation in chord, diameter, RPM, and advance ratio lead to greater variation in Reynolds number, Mach, and Angle of Attack than traditional rotor analyses. As a composite of aero codes/data is required to create an accurately modeled airfoil table, PyFoil81 proposes to empower engineers to reliably create robust C81-formatted tables with built-in airfoil preprocessing tools, API to various aero solvers, and a post-processing interpolative data blending tool. Housing these processes in an API-accessible Python framework cuts down on an hoc methods, ensuring reliable and accurate aeropropulsive trade studies, leading to improved mission analyses and vehicle design.

This airfoil software tool will find direct application in NASA’s RVLT program for a variety of VTOL aircraft design studies. Existing tool chains and aircraft design suites will benefit from access to bespoke airfoil data tables as they explore aeropropulsive trade studies. The software will empower engineers to quickly make good judgment calls about data quality, areas of best performance, and how best to combine the results from multiple sources into a single polar for efficient use in design studies. It will fill a critical gap in the ability to generate shorthand aero data for rotors, improving studies for eVTOL, Urban Air Mobility, and even conventional helicopter programs. Following additional Phases of development, this software could be distributed & licensed to commercial entities interested in developing efficient next-generation VTOL aircraft. The current excitement for eVTOL aircraft has generated a wealth of proposals, design studies, and prototypes from startups and prime contractors alike. Outside of passenger vehicles, the new emphasis on unmanned aircraft for civil logistical deliveries and military applications such as loitering munitions creates yet another market as multirotor aircraft come to maturity and push the envelope in range, payload, and endurance in competition for market control or tactical utility. Other commercial entities are likely to develop their own design processes, and this flexible tool will be able to slot in based on its API access.

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

None of these are guaranteed paths for this specific project — TechPort itself doesn't have an "apply" button. Reaching out to the contact(s) above with a specific question is usually the fastest way to find out what's actually open.