First off a video for how the new Dyson bladeless fans work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8he8afjQyd8
I've stood in front of these at the local Future Shop and they DO work and work rather well. Someone in another thread brought up the idea of using an EDF fan to feed a Dyson fan ring. Now that may or may not work for pure propulsion but the whole thing got me thinking of the Custer Channel Wing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Sn5JL9t_C4
Now what if the idea of blowing and pulling air over the upper surface could be combined with the Dyson principle. Oh sure I know that blown airfoils have been used before. But those were for boundry layer control. The Dyson configuration of a blown slot actually move the air over the wing and SHOULD produce thrust at the same time since the fan is able to push the air across a room. Could this blown slot Dyson technology breath new life into the idea that Custer came up with so many years ago?
Of course with the idea of blowing air over the wing from the slot which grabs and accelerates the free air in front of the wing there's no longer the need for the actual channel which allows the wing to sit close to the prop. So we could go back to a flat wing.
Now here's the catch.... if the blown slotted wing can generate both lift and thrust all at the same time then if the plane sits on the ground at the right nose high angle or if the wing were pivotable then we could use the combined lift and thrust to perform a vertical takeoff. Similarly the plane could slow down and go nose high with ease on the landing approach since with the blown upper surface the airfoil can't stall in any normal sense. Just the reaction air jets for attitude control would need to cut in as the airspeed slows down and the plane transitions into a hover and descent.
The question at hand is will this blown "air multiplier" effect be strong enough to generate the thrust needed to get the lift for VTOL and good forward airspeed or would assistance propellers be needed?
Or am I just blowing hot air..... again
