Anumá Aerospace gains patent for novel vacuum lift technology

The PVL system is inherently self-ballasting, providing zero-static lift on the ground, enhancing safety, and eliminating the cost and complexity of conventional helium airships' typical ground operations.

Anumá Aerospace Corporation, a pioneer in partial-vacuum lift (PVL) technology, has been granted patent US 11,679,855 B2 by the US Patent Office. Designed to produce and control the aerostatic lift of lighter-than-air aircraft, Anumá Aerospace's technology is said to be the first of its kind to create lift using vacuum.

“We are thrilled that our utility patent has been issued, and we can now proceed with our mission to decarbonize key segments of the aerospace industry,” says Diana Little, Co-Founder and CEO of Anumá Aerospace. “With our PVL technology, Anumá Aerospace offers a wide range of applications andmdash; from persistent aerostats for weather, surveillance, and fire monitoring to airships capable of carbon-neutral transportation or mobile hospitals and command centers serving previously unreachable, remote locations.”

Anumá Aerospace believes this technology will usher in a new era of sustainable transportation, connecting remote communities with global markets and creating economic development and job growth in underserved areas.

Anumá Aerospace's technology provides aerostatic lift by maintaining near-constant volume under low pressure. This removes prior barriers to aerostat and airship use, such as the flammability of hydrogen and the high cost and scarcity of helium, and provides buoyancy control without the complex systems required in conventional helium airships.

It is inherently self-ballasting, providing zero-static lift on the ground, enhancing safety, and eliminating the cost and complexity of conventional helium airships' typical ground operations, and includes solar-electric powered vacuum pumps that recover electrical energy during descent, enhancing the system's overall efficiency.

“360 years ago, aeronautics pioneer and mathematician Francesco Lana proposed a radical idea: the vacuum airship,” sasys Jamie Little, Co-Founder and CTO of Anumá Aerospace. “Now, recent advances in materials science, manufacturing technologies, and structural engineering innovations have converged to make Lana's idea attainable. Anumá Aerospace is solving the engineering challenges of vacuum lift, and this technology will drive revolutionary, environmentally-conscious change in the aerospace industry.”