Blackfly Aircraft Range - The company says that in the U.S., the single-seat "personal aerial vehicle" is categorized as an ultralight, for which no pilot license is required. Transport Canada has designated the aircraft as a basic ultralight, for which an ultralight pilot license is required. With a maximum gross takeoff weight of 313 pounds, BlackFly exceeds the weight limit for an ultralight in the U.S. Opener says that it has been categorized as an "amphibious ultralight" for which the weight limit is higher.
“As a kid,” he says, “I already envisioned what it would be like to have an aircraft that could seamlessly do a vertical takeoff, fly, and land again without any encumbrances whatsoever.” It was a vision that never left him, from a mechanical-engineering degree at the University of Toronto, management jobs in the aerospace industry, starting a company and making a pile of money by inventing a new kind of memory foam, and then retiring in 1996 at the age of 36.
Blackfly Aircraft Range
So who told you the Opener Blackfly may not qualify as an ultralight? At 354 pounds empty compared to other ultralights means it does qualify. Avoiding politics is what the FAA usually does by focusing on the facts compared to other government agencies; having followed the FAA for a life time; 50 plus years. Or, someone is leading you astray. Or someone at the FAA is leading Opener astray! Can you tell us which it is? Probably over 20 existing ultralights and maybe over 40 existing ultralights; why your thought "may not qualify" is offensive.
Designing An Evtol From First Principles
Hope you realize that is only the range because it qualifies as an ultralight when and if the government changes the regulation for flying vtols the range will change.. I’m sure 60 miles would be no problem!
It is just what I need. I have to drive 45 minutes to get to the airport where I can my real airplane that will haul real people 100+nm at real flight speeds (140KTAS or better) at altitude. So, flying direct, puts me there in about 15 minutes flying direct (which I can do in MVFR — and basically fly a contact approach).
There are not many conventional used VTOL’s out there that don’t require nothing short of helicopter pilot certification. Although pricey, a Blackfly like craft, might well allow anyone with maybe more money than they know what to do with, to fly. More scary than cool.
The company’s long-term vision is to integrate the new vehicles into a rural-urban commuting network, officials explained. These networks would be powered by renewable energy sources requiring only a fraction of the transportation energy used currently, they add.
Advanced Air Mobility For Everybody
BlackFly is a recreational VTOL that is designed for pleasure operations and a concept demonstrator for future technologies. Opener is the parent company; heavily funded by Larry Page of the Google Enterprise. Because the BlackFly meets Transport Canada Ultralight categorizations, it does not require certification to be operated in specified Canadian airspace. However, the BlackFly is not yet flying in the United States as the certification requirements and classifications for ultralights differ.
Also a dangerous one, inasmuch as within an urban environment such as the greater L.A.-Orange County Megalopolis you won’t be traveling in a straight line, but rather directed to follow a circuitous route around any number of obstacles such as finals, closed airspace, etc. In that case, that 25mi range/half-hour endurance is cutting things too close for comfort. The Beach Cities/South Bay might only be 10-15 miles to, say, downtown L.A., but I guarantee you the flight path is much longer.
In March 2020, while few details have been released since 2019, the company stated in a Twitter post that it has been busy refining manufacturing processes and vehicle design to be more robust and efficient for future demand. No timeline has been released, and as of early 2021, no new details have surfaced.
“OPENER is re-energizing the art of flight with a safe and affordable flying vehicle that can free its operators from the everyday restrictions of ground transportation,” said Marcus Leng, CEO. “We will offer competitive pricing in an endeavor to democratize three-dimensional personal transportation. Safety has been our primary driving goal in the development of this new technology. OPENER will be introducing this innovation in a controlled and responsible manner. Even though not required by FAA regulations, BlackFly operators will be required to successfully complete the FAA Private Pilot written examination and also complete company-mandated vehicle familiarization and operator training.”
Blackfly flew four times at Oshkosh. Each time, it took off, flew a few hundred yards over a grassy area between the runways, and then returned to the original spot, landing gently on its keel, before tilting to one side.
The California company expects to sell up to 25 of its ultralight category, computer-operated aircraft before the end of this year. Its website says that when Blackfly goes into mass production, “it will [sell for] the price of an SUV.” Then it adds a slight disclaimer: “We are vague about the price so as not to overpromise.”
But 2023 looks to be a pivotal year for eVTOLs. Several well-funded startups are expected to reach important early milestones in the certification process. And the company Leng founded, Opener, could beat all of them by making its first deliveries—which would also be the first for any maker of an eVTOL.
The FAA is going through rule changes for FAA Part 103 called MOSAIC; and is due out in August 2023. The Part 103 expansion should include all existing ultralights plus use in populated areas because the Opener Blackfly has a wing span of 13 feet 7 inches; or is street legal in most if not all states. I want to hangar a Blackfly in my back garage; and leave and return to my back yard. I have an open area about 40 feet by 40 feet; with around 1000 flying hours with commercial and instrument rating.
Opener vehicles will be on display at the 2018 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, from July 23 to July 29, 2018. The public is invited to view the vehicles in the Innovation Building, booths IC-12A and 13A, and also experience three-dimensional flight by operating the vehicles in a virtual reality simulation, company officials said.
Then consider that the hysterics and NIMBYs will doubtless clutch their chests and roll their eyes about the next door neighbour who takes off and lands in his driveway, whining that it gives them headaches or similar complaints. ( Add to that class-envy driven complaints while you’re at it.) Ditto it landing on, say, a rooftop parking structure. Worst First thinking will doubtless meet municipal cowardice and ignorance plus liability concerns to ban them in certain (or most) urban areas except airports – said airports such as Santa Monica being under attack BTW – thus negating the benefits of being able to fly directly to the office. (The fact that it can be trailered and assembled elsewhere is a tacit admission of that by the manufacturer, that you’ll have to haul it out of town just to use it.)
Founder Marcus Leng achieved first flight with a prototype eVTOL aircraft in October 2011 at his then-headquarters in Warkworth, Canada. In September 2014, the company was restructured as Opener and relocated most of its operations to Palo Alto, California. The company said the aircraft would be available for purchase in 2019, but that had yet to happen as of early 2020.
The motors started out generating 160 newtons (36 pounds) of static thrust. It was way too low. “I actually tried to purchase motors and motor controllers from companies that manufactured those, and I specifically asked them to customize those motors for me, by suggesting a number of changes,” he says. “I was told that, no, those changes won’t work.”
But as he looked to set his craft down, he saw a wing starting to dig into his lawn. “Uh-oh, this is not good,” he thought. “The aircraft is going to spin out of control. But what instead happened was the propulsion systems revved up and down so rapidly that as the aircraft did that skidding turn, that wing corner just dragged along my lawn exactly in the direction I was holding the aircraft, and then came to a stable landing,” says Leng. At that point, he knew that such an aircraft was viable “because to have that sort of an interference in the aircraft and for the control systems to be able to control it was truly remarkable.”
Today, some 350 organizations in 48 countries are designing, building, or flying eVTOLs, according to the Vertical Flight Society. These companies are fueled by more than US $7 billion and perhaps as much as $10 billion in startup funding. And yet, 11 years after Leng’s flight, no eVTOLs have been delivered to customers or are being produced at commercial scale. None have even been certified by a civil aviation authority in the West, such as the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration or the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.
The BlackFly is a recreational air vehicle that carries a single passenger/operator. The BlackFly features eight rotors spread over two wings, and does not require a pilot's license to operate due to the augmentation of its control system.
“So, take off, flew about 6 feet above the ground, pitched the aircraft towards my wife and the two couples that were there, who were behind automobiles for protection, and decided to do a skidding stop in front of them. Nobody had an idea that this was going to be happening,” recalls Leng.
The aircraft resembles two boat hulls, one forming the bottom, the other inverted to form the top, with a bubble canopy in the middle for the single person Blackfly carries. Attached to the shell are two wings—one in front and the other at the rear—each holding four electrically powered propellers.
Overall, the 2-kilogram motors are capable of sustaining 20 kilowatts, for a power density of 10 kilowatts per kilogram, Leng says. It’s an extraordinary figure. One of the few motor manufacturers claiming a density in that range is H3X Technologies, which says its HPDM-250 clocks in at 12 kw/kg.
Created for the US recreational sport-vehicle market, Blackfly operates under Part 103 of the federal air regulations. That comes with a few restrictions. As an ultralight, Blackfly can weigh no more than 254 pounds and may not be flown at night or anywhere near populated areas.
Equipped with these sophisticated flight controllers, the fly-by-wire BlackFly is similar in that regard to the hobbyist drones that rely on processors and clever algorithms to avoid the tricky manipulations of sticks, levers, and pedals required to fly a traditional fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft.
By layering the steel of the rotor, Leng was able to greatly reduce its heat generation, because the thinner layers of steel limited the eddy currents in the steel that create heat. Less heat meant he could use higher-strength neodymium magnets, which would otherwise become demagnetized. Finally, he rearranged those magnets into a configuration called a Halbach array. In the end Leng’s motors were able to produce 609 newtons (137 lbs.) of thrust.
According to Opener, the BlackFly prototype has flown more than 23,000 miles and more than 2,300 flights with a full payload since first flight in August 2014. The full-length propulsion system has completed 40,000 flight cycles.
Also, Opener touts the Blackfly as the perfect vehicle to commute from the country to the city. At only 25mi, the range simply isn’t there. 60 miles would be more like it, a range not available on either the U.S. or European model.
Ed Lu, a former NASA astronaut and executive at Google, sits on Opener’s safety-review board. He says what impressed him most when he first met the BlackFly team was “the fact that they had based their entire development around testing. They had a wealth of flight data from flying this vehicle in a drone mode, an unmanned mode.” Having all that data was key. “They could make their decisions based not on analysis, but after real-world operations,” Lu says, adding that he is particularly impressed by Opener’s ability to manage all the flight data. “It allows them to keep track of every aircraft, what sensors are in which aircraft, which versions of code, all the way down to the flights, to what happened in each flight, to videos of what’s happening.” Lu thinks this will be a huge advantage once the aircraft is released into the “real” world.
The fundamental challenge to designing a vertical-takeoff aircraft is endowing it with both vertical lift and efficient forward cruising. Most eVTOL makers achieve this by physically tilting multiple large rotors from a vertical rotation axis, for takeoff, to a horizontal one, for cruising. But the mechanism for tilting the rotors must be extremely robust, and therefore it inevitably adds substantial complexity and weight. Such tilt-rotors also entail significant compromises and trade-offs in the size of the rotors and their placement relative to the wings.
Opener’s strategy is not without risks, either. For one, there’s no guarantee that the FAA will ultimately agree that Opener’s aircraft, called BlackFly, qualifies as an ultralight. And not everyone is happy with this approach. “My concern is, these companies that are saying they can be ultralights and start flying around in public are putting at risk a $10 billion [eVTOL] industry,” says Mark Moore, founder and chief executive of Whisper Aero in Crossville, Tenn. “Because if they crash, people won’t know the difference” between the ultralights and the passenger eVTOLs, he adds. “To me, that’s unacceptable.” Previously, Moore led a team at NASA that designed a personal-use eVTOL and then served as engineering director at Uber’s Elevate initiative.
As of late October, the company had built at its facility in Palo Alto, Calif., roughly 70 aircraft—considerably more than are needed for simple testing and evaluation. It had flown more than 30 of them. And late in 2022, the company had begun training a group of operators on a state-of-the-art virtual-reality simulator system.
“The main objective behind this was proof of concept,” he says.“I had to prove it to myself, because up until that point, they were just equations on a piece of paper. I had to get to the point where I knew that this could be practical.”
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