Invented by Chung; Jae Hoon

Urban air mobility is changing how we think about travel within cities. Imagine a world where small aircraft take off and land vertically from rooftops or parks. These places, called vertiports, are popping up to support these flying vehicles. But there’s a problem: vertiports need power, and city electricity is expensive and sometimes limited. What if the same wind that comes from an aircraft’s landing could help power the vertiport? A new patent application shows exactly how this can work. Let’s unpack the invention, the science behind it, and what makes it special.

Background and Market Context

Over the last few years, cities have started to prepare for a future where people and packages move through the air instead of only on roads. These new flying vehicles, often called UAM (urban air mobility) vehicles, can rise straight up and down, making them perfect for city life. They don’t need long runways like airplanes. Instead, they use vertiports: special pads or platforms built on rooftops or in open spaces.

Vertiports are more than just landing zones. They have to provide places for people to board, charge the vehicles, and keep everyone safe. This means they need lots of electricity—not just for the vehicles, but also for lights, computers, doors, and other systems. Right now, that electricity mostly comes from the city’s power grid. In busy cities, power can be costly or even hard to get, especially if you want to build many vertiports on tall buildings.

People are also thinking more about the environment. If we want cities to be cleaner, we need to find new ways to make and use energy. Using renewable sources, like wind or sun, is one answer. But for vertiports, wind is tricky. The wind in cities is often blocked by buildings, and there is not much open space to put up big wind turbines. But what if there was a source of strong wind right there at the vertiport every time a flying vehicle lands or takes off? That’s where this invention comes in.

The new vertiport design uses the wind created by the aircraft itself. When these vehicles land or take off, their spinning rotors push lots of air downwards, making a powerful blast of wind. The patent describes a way to catch and use this wind to make electricity, right at the vertiport. This could mean less need for outside power, lower costs, and a greener way to run the landing pads of the future.

Scientific Rationale and Prior Art

To understand why this new vertiport design is exciting, let’s talk about the science behind it. When an aircraft with rotors (like a helicopter, drone, or tilt-rotor plane) lands or takes off, its rotors spin fast and push air downward. This is called “downwash.” Downwash is strong and focused right under the rotors, and it’s a big reason why landing pads have to be sturdy and clear of loose objects.

For years, wind energy has mostly used the natural wind blowing across open fields, turning big wind turbines. In cities, small wind turbines exist, but they don’t produce much power because the wind is weak or unpredictable. A few ideas have tried to use the wind from things like trains or cars, but these are rare and not very effective.

No one, until now, has figured out a good way to use the powerful but short bursts of wind from aircraft landings and takeoffs. Some older patents and products put small turbines near runways, but these were not efficient. They couldn’t move the turbines into the right spots, and the wind from airplanes is not as focused as from rotorcraft. Older vertiport designs focused on safety, structure, or charging systems, but not on capturing wind energy from the aircraft itself.

The science here is simple but smart: if you can put wind generators exactly where the aircraft’s downwash is strongest, and move them out of the way when they are not needed, you can get bursts of power right when you need it. But doing this safely, without getting in the way of the aircraft or people, is a real challenge.

This is where the new vertiport design stands out. It creates a flexible, movable ring of wind generators that can rise up into place during landing or takeoff, and then tuck away when not in use. This solves the old problems of location, safety, and efficiency. It’s a blend of mechanical engineering and a deep understanding of how air moves around rotorcraft.

Invention Description and Key Innovations

Let’s walk through the heart of this new vertiport invention, breaking down how it works and what makes it clever.

The vertiport is built with a central take-off and landing zone. Around this zone is a “main body,” which is the rest of the landing platform. But here’s where things get interesting: the landing zone is slightly separated from the main body, creating a ring-shaped gap all the way around. This gap is normally covered by a special door that can open or close.

Below the surface, hidden in a lower space, is a big ring-shaped structure. This ring has wind generators (like small wind turbines) attached to it. The ring is held up by several supports called elevating portions. These supports can move the ring up or down using motors and gears.

When the vertiport is in “normal mode,” the door is closed and the ring with its wind generators is tucked safely below the surface. People and vehicles can move safely across the platform with nothing in the way. But when an aircraft that can generate strong downwash (like a rotorcraft) is about to land, the vertiport switches to “power generation mode.”

Here’s what happens, step by step:

The vertiport’s control system gets a message from the aircraft (or a central server) telling it what kind of aircraft is incoming, and where its rotors are located. If the aircraft is the right kind, the control system opens the gap door and lifts the ring of wind generators up until they are right in the path of the expected wind blast from the rotors.

If the aircraft is coming in at a specific angle, or its rotors are not in the usual spots, the ring can even rotate so the wind generators line up exactly where the downwash will be strongest. This is done using extra motors and gears that let the ring turn like a carousel.

As the aircraft lowers itself to land, the spinning rotors create a strong flow of air. The wind generators spin, turning that wind into electricity. This power can be used for lights, systems, or even to charge the aircraft itself.

Once the aircraft has landed and stopped its rotors, the control system lowers the ring of generators back into the lower space, and the door closes. Now the platform is clear and safe again for people to move around.

Some extra smart features are included. The landing zone has markings (like big arrows or letters) to help the aircraft line up in the right spot and direction, and may even have a beacon that sends out a radio signal to guide the pilot or the aircraft’s computer.

The control system can also adjust everything automatically, based on the type of aircraft, its direction, and even real-time feedback about where the rotors are. This means the wind generators can always be in the best spot to catch the most wind, without anyone having to go out and move things by hand.

The beauty of this design is in its blend of safety, flexibility, and efficiency. By hiding the wind generators when not in use, the vertiport stays safe for people and looks neat. By moving them up and rotating them only when needed, it catches the most energy possible from each landing or takeoff. And by using the aircraft’s own wind, it creates a cycle of energy that helps power the vertiport itself.

If the aircraft is waiting on the pad with its rotors spinning (for example, before takeoff), the vertiport can lift the generators again to catch that wind too, making even more electricity.

From a technical point of view, the invention uses simple machines (motors, gears, rails) in a smart way. The ring can move up and down like an elevator, rotate like a turntable, and lock into place for safety. All of this is managed by a control system that talks to the aircraft and decides what to do at each moment.

No previous vertiport has combined all these features: a hidden, movable ring of wind generators; smart control based on aircraft type and position; and seamless switching between normal and power generation modes.

Conclusion

The new vertiport invention is a clever answer to the problem of power in the new world of urban air travel. By using the wind made by the aircraft themselves, it helps each vertiport make its own electricity, lowers costs, and makes the whole system greener. The design is safe, flexible, and ready for the future, fitting perfectly into the needs of busy urban spaces. For inventors, city planners, and anyone interested in the next wave of urban transportation, this patent offers a smart, actionable blueprint for how tomorrow’s flying vehicle hubs can be both high-tech and eco-friendly.

Click here https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/ and search 20250214715.