Patent attributes
A personal aircraft (PAC) capable of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) comprises a fixed wing and a fuselage with a passenger compartment having a front, a rear and two sides, and a plurality of independently powered thrusters, preferably integrated into the wing, on each side of the fuselage. The aircraft has a lift to drag ratio equal to or greater than 2. The thrusters, which are ducted fan units capable of providing a vertically upward force to the aircraft, are provided with such redundancy that the aircraft can hover with at one thruster inoperative on each side of the fuselage. At least one thruster on each side of the fuselage preferably comprises a “levitator” which creates lift from the airfoil-like air inlet as well as from the acceleration of air from inlet to outlet.