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About Trek Aerospace
History
Trek Aerospace is the industry leader in shrouded propeller (“ducted fan”) technology. Founded in 1996, Trek has been dedicated to understanding and improving shrouded propeller performance and efficiency. We developed Trek’s proprietary CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software program, TASPA™ (Trek Aerospace Shrouded Propeller Analysis), to design optimal shrouded propeller modules. Testing in NASA and university wind tunnels has validated the accuracy of our code. Flight testing of both manned and unmanned vehicles has further verified the real-world applications of our technology. Trek’s knowledge base allows us to design and build shrouded propellers that produce 50-75% more static thrust than our nearest competitor. Furthermore, our shrouded propellers outperform similar free propellers to airspeeds in excess of 200 knots.
More than just theoretical, Trek has applied our expertise to the following in-house programs:
- Springtail – a 350 lb payload, 800 lb gross weight, manned, exoskelator, VTOL aircraft
- Dragonfly – a 400 lb payload, 1050 lb gross weight, manned/unmanned, VTOL aircraft
- Oviwun – a 4½ lb payload, 12 lb gross weight, electrically powered, VTOL UAV
- MiniFly – a 3 lb payload, 12 lb gross weight, electrically powered, VTOL UAV
- Baja Skimmer – a two-seat, personal water craft
Additionally, Trek has teamed and consulted on numerous other programs and projects involving shrouded propellers and/or autonomous control systems. Trek has developed the systems engineering, airframes, electrical systems, avionics, guidance sensor packages, onboard display systems, operator controls, flight control software, engine drive train, electronic fuel injected engines, mufflers, fuel systems, propellers, ducts, acoustic design, and support structures for all of these vehicles. All of these systems have been built with reliability, operability, maintainability and DFM (Design for Manufacturing) producibility at the heart of their designs.
DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, US Department of Defense DoD) awarded Trek Aerospace a $5.1 million contract to investigate the development of the VTOL flying exoskeletor device as part of DoD’s EHPA (Exoskeletons for Human Performance Augmentation) Program in December 2000. During the 3 year tenure of this program, we developed four distinct vehicle versions. Tests, starting with static ground testing, tethered flight, and eventually free hover and transition to low speed forward flight, proved the vehicle’s capability. The program was successfully completed in February 2004.
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