Skyryse is looking to revolutionise the way helicopters are flown. Photo: Skyryse
California-based Skyryse has opened the order book for the Skyryse One, the first aircraft to feature the company’s four-axis fly-by-wire flight control system.
Skyryse One is based on an R66, but although the aircraft looks like an R66, it is very different according to the company’s founder and CEO, Dr Mark Groden: “The Skyryse One might look familiar on the outside, but the similarities to any other aircraft end there. Since the invention of vertical flight, pilots have juggled four controls simultaneously, using both hands and both feet just to keep it airborne. Until today.”
The conventional, cyclic, collective and pedals and their associated linkages are replaced with a single four-axis control stick, and that stick, in concert with touchscreen controls, radically simplifies the pilot/machine interface. Which, said Skyryse, puts the pilot fully in command while freeing them from mundane, error-prone actions.
The flight control system includes a dynamic envelope protection function and a fully automated autorotation capability, which will recognise a power failure and automatically enter into an autorotation, automating the glide, flare, and set-down with the pilot in control. An auto-pickup and set-down function is controlled via the touchscreen, and the Skyryse One’s Hover Assist allows hands-off hovering.
In addition, engine start-up and shut-down are fully automated. But perhaps most critical in terms of safety and utility, the company is looking to certify the aircraft for IFR.
That capability will come at a cost. The baseline price for the Skyryse One will start at US$1.8 million, and the company is accepting fully refundable, non-transferable reservation positions for $2,500.
Skyryse will begin accepting traditional deposits from First Edition customers as their place in line comes up in production, with first deposits to coincide with the EAA AirVenture in July.
• Dr Mark Groden explains the Skyryse concept to RotorHub International at last year’s Heli-Expo. Click HERE
