As I pilot...this is a nice idea until the engine quits and you can no longer control the plane. I hope they come up with a good solution for that or else leave it only on UAV's or things with ballistic recovery chutes...even then if you have engine failure on takeoff you are done for if control is engine dependent.

This is just like the Tesla Model 3 ventilation vents

I concur with flyerfly, unless some sort of back up system would be included (electric fan?) then this sounds a terrible idea. Any engine failure would result in the potential loss of the vehicle. At least with a dead stick in a traditional aircraft you have to be pretty unlucky to not be able to land safely.

Loss of control in an engine - out situation was my immediate concern when I saw this. I suppose though that if we're talking about a relatively small, *relatively* inexpensive unmanned vehicle it might be considered an acceptable risk - unless you're on the ground beneath it when it fails!

@flyerfly
Suspect this is a control system that will be in addition to the more conventional elevons (combined Ailerons and elevator).
Would still be beneficial in that the elevons would not be operational most of the time, so reduced drag etc.

Not a pilot but I was going full throttle thru everglades on a seadoo which is steered in a similar manner with water jet and not a rudder. The engine sucked up some sand and quit. I could no longer turn the seadoo and crashed into a massive mangrove.

would air from the engine prevent icing? or just icing near the outputs?

The ideas for control in 'dead-stick' mode using fans means batteries & motors weight that must be essential weight for normal uses and not simply added weight waiting around for the "stick" to die. But there are other means to control with a dead-stick[engine] and no moving surfaces.

I wounder why it has vertical stabilizers? Most UAVs that look like this one have no vertical stabilizers. They use spoilers at the trailing edge of the outboard part of the wing to control yaw because vertical stabilizers make the aircraft less stealthy. If you look at pictures of the B-2 in flight you can see the trailing edge spoilers are open on both sides. This UAV could have controlled yaw by blowing exhaust air out of one wing tip or the other eliminating the need for vertical stabilizers or spoilers and the drag they produce.

At first I thought it would basically be a delta-winged cruise missile with thrust vector control, but I share everyone else's concerns that if this is going into pilot-passenger models it will need like a battery-bank-servo-flap emergency backup system?