Aura of the City

My Crinoline aircraft can be transformed into an ultimate aerial city explorer. It would outperform balloons and helicopters. The sightseeing version of my design has the inverse design compared to the initial proposal. The skirt section is now a solid structure. This structure would house liquid air tanks. Gradient hexagonal structures would make the casing lighter compared to traditional designs. The passengers would be seated outside of this structure having a 360-degree unobtrusive view.

The inside of this structure would be void which would generate the lift. The expanding liquid air would be ejected as pressurized gas from the top section of the structure, creating a low-pressure zone above it. The air trapped inside would be pushed downward to generate lift. The structure would be tapered, larger toward the bottom. The end of the structure would be curved inward for efficiency reasons and would double as the landing surface.

The trusses supporting the structure would expand toward the top opening. They would be supporting a parachute like fabric on top. This section would not cover the opening but create a parachute effect during descent. “Aura” would take of from the ground as the pressurized air vented from the inners of the structure. The fabric at the top would have minimal drag at this point. When the Aura reaches the target elevation, it would reduce its thrust and would glide gently using the top parachute and the parachute like inner structure. This would reduce the liquid air consumption considerably. Like no other aircraft, its safety mechanism, the parachute, would be always deployed. Additionally, the lack of combustion eliminates any fire from the aircraft itself. In case of a crash, there is no fuel on board which would start a fire. If pressure builds inside the liquid air storage it would open up the exhaust valves which would work as a cold gas thruster and keep the aircraft airborne longer. Even without liquid air, the structure would land on ground with minimal impact to the passenger cabin. Which makes Aura the safest aircraft ever designed. Finally, its cold air exhaust would be way silent than any aircraft. The cold air that is exhausted would make it environmentally positive in the age of global warming.