Wayfarer Tests Retractable Electric Propellers on Scaled Cessna 182

Wayfarer Aircraft has flown a subscale Cessna 182 fitted with its retractable distributed electric propulsion system, a configuration meant to boost lift at low speeds for short takeoffs and landings. The company says the tests, part of a NASA-supported research program, produced four times the lift of the unmodified aircraft and required 40 percent less thrust than comparable systems using fixed pylons.

The system, called Waylift, places several electric propellers along the wing. During takeoff and landing they blow air over the wing to increase lift; for cruise they retract into the wing. Wayfarer says this arrangement matches the performance of external pylon-mounted propulsors while using substantially less thrust.

Testing compared the scaled demonstrator with an instrumented full-scale Cessna 182 flown by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which also worked on the propulsion and flight-control systems. NASA's roughly $900,000 Phase II award supported collection of aerodynamic and acoustic data for evaluating the technology on both new and modified aircraft. Wayfarer sees potential applications in short-field civil aviation, military, and public-safety operations.