While Bell’s 525 may become the first fly-by-wire helicopter to be certified, there is another contender. Skyryse plans to bring FBW benefits to light helicopters with its R66-based Skyryse One. Gideon Ewers tried out the technology at the company’s headquarters.
This article, headlined “Swipe right”, was originally published and written by editor Gideon Ewers in April/May 2024 of RotorHub International, and all information is correct at the time of posting. If you would like to receive articles similar directly to your inbox, apply for a complimentary subscription to RotorHub International.
Introduction to R66-Based Helicopter: Gideon Ewers meets Dr Mark Groden
I first met Skyryse founder Dr Mark Groden at Heli-Expo in Atlanta early last year. During the course of our conversation, he explained his reasoning for wanting to develop the fly-by-wire system, the principles behind it and the goals of the programme.
I confess I came away thinking to myself, cynical soul that I am, “Well, that’ll be something mighty impressive … if it comes to pass.”
Little did I imagine that around 12 months later I would find myself sitting in a flight training device (FTD) alongside Warren Curry, Vice President Sales and a former US Marines Cobra pilot, checking out the system and its capabilities.
Let alone doing so just a few weeks after the company had launched the first aircraft to feature the system – the R66-based Skyryse One.
Yet having watched the project’s rapid progress over the last 12 months or so, when the invitation came to come to El Segundo, while I was excited to put the fly-by-wire system to my ham-fisted test, I wasn’t all that surprised to find it had reached such a level of maturity.
And so it was that very early on the Tuesday after this year’s Heli-Expo, and as luck would have it a day after flying an R66 for the first time, I found myself settling into the FTD having had a briefing on the system and what to expect from Curry – along with, it must be said, a very welcome cup of coffee.
I opted to sit in the right-hand seat, since as a southpaw it seemed sensible to have the four-axis controller fall to my left hand.
That’s the first thing to note about the fly-by-wire system. Forget pedals, collective and cyclic – they are redundant.
Every action is driven by the system responding to pilot command via the controller, which leads to some comical foot-flapping – but more of that later.
The avionics suite has two screens, the upper one being home to the primary flight display (PFD) and the usual accoutrements, while the lower multi-function display (MFD), besides hosting the engine gauges, radios and so forth, is also where you’ll find everything else you need to operate the aircraft – including, critically, the swipe buttons.
Hands-on experience: Testing the fly-by-wire-system
Starting the R66’s Rolls-Royce 300 the day before at Torrance was hardly a chore, but compared with the start sequence on Skyryse One it was hard labour. Frankly, it brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “swipe right”. While obviously it’s just good airmanship to monitor what’s happening with the Ts and Ps to ensure they are doing what they should during the start, as with any FADEC system (full authority digital engine control), the system architecture will protect the engine and your wallet from anything bad happening.
Control panel within the Skyryse one FBW helicopter ( Skyryse One )
But it is a non-event, as is lifting into the hover – which is achieved by another simple swipe. Clearly this kind of auto take-off and hover is a part of your world in a complex twin, but this is a light single after all.
To better demonstrate the system and its capabilities, Curry had set the weather conditions to include a variable crosswind from the right.
Lifting into the hover (automatically), Curry bade me resist the temptation to compensate and instead to allow the system to take care of it – which it did.
Noticing the drift rightwards, the system settled the aircraft into a slightly left wing down attitude to compensate.
I confess that I wasn’t able to resist my aeronautical OCD, and a couple of side blips on the controller regained the centre line (our virtual situation having been set up on Camarillo Airport’s Runway 26).
Progressing to take-off for a few circuits was where the first deviation from the norm occurred – the controller working fore, aft, left, right performs the functions of the cyclic and rotationally some, emphasis some, of the functions of pedals.
Meanwhile, on the top of the controller there is a slide control operated by your thumb, which is in effect the collective.
Now here is where I found my first bit of adaptation was required, because the collective slider was the sort of place you would find that a beep trim switch muscle memory kicked in, and I was using it like one – whereas I should have been treating it as a mini collective and holding it as I increased torque.
It also introduced the first of my foot-flapping, as there is no need to feed in the pedal as you increase torque – the system takes care of that.
But again, muscle memory is a powerful thing and my soft shoe shuffle continued.
Understanding the automated helicopter controls
Levelling at around 600 feet above ground level for a trip around the right-hand pattern, Highway 101 is a pretty good guide for the downwind and the junction with Las Posas Road marks the spot to start the base leg to the quite displaced threshold of Runway 26.
Again, there was some adaptation to be done in order to use the fly-by-wire system for the approach, but to be honest it was a bit ragged – especially rolling out on final – that was more about adaptation than anything else.
Terminating the approach in the hover, we then carried out some hover taxi work, including setting up for a quartering downwind landing, which is normally something I would avoid like the proverbial plague.
In this case it was a doddle, although it was also apparent how hard the system was working to make it so.
Taking off again for some demonstrations of other aspects of the envelope protection, it was apparent that things were considerably smoother than the first time around (though the pointless tap dance continued).
Rather than break down the envelope protection aspects, I’ll simply note that it won’t let you do anything stupid.
The important thing is that after a couple of trips around the circuit I felt comfortable flying with the system. Ten more and I’d have been right at home.
Autorotations and envelope protection: A litmus test
Moving on to the litmus test of autorotations, in order to make things a bit more interesting, rather than nominating planet Earth and upright as a target for the landings, we chose the junction of Runway 26 and Taxiway C.
Curry first demonstrated the procedure, which was little more than moving the collective slider to full down and pointing the aircraft where you wanted it to go.
One Stick Control ( Skyryse One )
No consideration need be given to rotor RPM, as the system does that – or compensation for loss of torque (foot-tapping notwithstanding).
In the real world there is no need for the first action, because if the system senses power loss it will commence autorotation automatically. In fact, the team has demonstrated fully automatic autorotations all the way to the ground.
But Curry and I are pilots and there were accuracy bragging rights at stake. As to who won our little spot autorotation competition? Well, that’d be telling, but I did head for LAX later with a certain spring in my step.
The point is that it brings the concept of mission management to light helicopters, freeing up pilot capacity by alleviating the need to “fly” the aircraft.
Combined with the envelope protection, the safety improvement implications are obvious.
The system boasts triple redundancy and the company’s intention is for that triple redundancy to deliver air transport category protection.
What happens when a layer of that redundancy is lost?
My mind turned to the Airbus fly-by-wire system principles I know so well from fixed wing days, where as each layer of redundancy is removed, the system degrades.
And as was so tragically demonstrated with the Air France 447 crash, the first thing you lose is envelope protection. Would it be that kind of loss of functionality?
The answer, as it turns out, is no change in functionality or envelope protection. Simply a “land as soon as possible” caption on the CAWS (Central Aural Warning System) section of the MFD.
Awaiting FAA Certification: What’s next for the fly-by-wire system?
So then, when does Skyryse expect certification for the Skyryse One?
The company is quite bullish in its predictions, talking in terms of a 2025 time frame.
I can’t help but think that although that would be tremendous, it might be overly optimistic given the novelty of fly-by-wire helicopters – the first is yet to be certified.
Bear in mind that it took Robinson – the provider of the airframe, let’s not forget – the best part of three years to get FAA approval of its new empennage symmetrical horizontal stabiliser.
Skyryse One vs. competitors: Is it worth the price?
The other question, in this case the 519,450-dollar question (this being the difference in cost between a fairly pimped R66 – glass cockpit, autopilot, polycarbonate windscreen and slick paint – and the Skyryse One’s US$1.8 million price tag) is are the various enhancements worth it?
Model of the Skyryse One R-66 Based Helicopter, powered by SkyOS (Skyryse One)
This is a question brought into even sharper relief because Skyryse is, initially at least, targeting the owner-operator, with a major push expected at Oshkosh this summer.
It’s a tricky one, since that sticker price raises the acquisition cost out of the R66’s class of its own to a more direct competition with the likes of the Bell 505, itself an impressive tool.
I think that if I were in the happy position of being in the market for either aircraft, it is a question that would occupy many hours of deep thought – and the balance could be easily swayed by environmental factors.
Operating in busy airspace, for example, would sway me to the Skyryse, as would the ability to lower personal VFR (visual flight rules) minima – legal isn’t necessarily safe, after all. As I say, it’s food for hours of thought.
Taking a wider view, Air Methods is working with Skyryse to explore the options for retrofit on their H130s.
Single pilot HEMS night operations using a fly-by-wire helicopter or law enforcement ops? Now that’s what they call a game-changer.
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