Carter PAV
| PAV | |
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| On display 2014 | |
| Role | Compound autogyro |
| Manufacturer | Carter Aviation Technologies |
| First flight | 5 January 2011 |
| Status | In test |
| Number built | 2 |
| Developed from | CarterCopter |
| Images | |
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 PAV in flight 1 2
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| Video | |
 PAV jump take-off, with wings
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Official video of flight tests, no wings
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Official video of flight tests, with wings
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PAV jump take-off, and slowed rotor at 112rpm on YouTube
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PAV at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh
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PAV on display at Oshkosh 2010
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PAV with wings Archive
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PAV "hop" Archive
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PAV cockpit
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The Carter PAV (Personal Air Vehicle) is a two-bladed, compound autogyro developed by Carter Aviation Technologies to demonstrate slowed rotor technology. The design has an unpowered rotor mounted on top of the fuselage, wings like a conventional fixed-wing aircraft mounted underneath, and a controllable pitch pusher propeller at the rear of the fuselage. Heavy weights (75 pounds or 34 kilograms each) are placed in the rotor tips to enhance rotational energy and to reduce flapping.
When the CarterCopter was damaged in 2005 due to a gear up landing caused by pilot error, 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 16 November 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 was intended to deliver 3,000 pounds (1,400 kg) of cargo similar to the unmanned Kaman K-MAX, but over a future range of 1,300 nautical miles (2,400 km) compared to the demonstrated 150 nautical miles (280 km) or more of the K-MAX. The agreement committed 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 was to be an autonomous slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) aircraft based on the Carter Personal Air Vehicle.
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Wikipedia