FutureFlight
How Electric Propulsion and Blown-wing Technology Have Liberated Aircraft Design
Distributed electric propulsion can give aircraft designers greater flexibility over configurations that can make performance more efficient, and Airflow believes blown wing technology unlocks this potential.
Airflow eSTOL aircraft.
Airflow's eSTOL aircraft is based on blown wing technology that increases lift at lower speeds by accelerating the flow of air over the wing. (Image: Airflow)

Thanks to distributed electric propulsion, engineers now have the flexibility to design and build aircraft with capabilities unmatched by conventional airplanes. For Airflow, the key to leveraging this potential is blown-wing technology, which it is using for its proposed eSTOL vehicles.

“The key breakthrough here is electric propulsion,” says Peter Kalogiannis, co-founder and chief technology officer at California-based start-up Airflow. “What we’re doing is taking an existing technology and applying it to a new type of aircraft.”