Los Angeles-based start-up Skyryse is aiming to introduce a standardised, simplified flight control system that would allow pilots to operate different aircraft and cut down on the length of training required.
When you learn to drive a car, you can pretty much expect to be able to drive other similar vehicles.
There might be some differences, such as going from an automatic to a manual or learning to cope with a significantly larger vehicle, but the basic controls are the same.
This is not always the case with aircraft, which can have very different control systems from one model to the next.
Pilots generally have to earn a licence to fly a particular aircraft and cannot simply hop behind the controls of another.
Skyryse wants to bring in a simplified control system that will be common across different types of aircraft, including aeroplanes and large helicopters.
According to Forbes, Skyryse says that its FlightOS system would theoretically allow anyone to be able to control an aircraft after half an hour of training with a joystick or touchscreen – though much more training would be required before they would actually be allowed to take to the skies.
The company claims that its system would actually make flying safer, as it cuts down on the number of tasks currently required with manual aircraft controls.
Controls would have inbuilt situational awareness
The system would have its own situational awareness, provided via radar and other sensors, as well as automated ‘envelope protection’ that stabilises the craft and prevents the pilot from carrying out unsafe actions.
Skyryse CEO Mark Groden told Forbes: ‘The helicopter or the plane shouldn’t care what weather it’s flying through so long as the weather doesn’t prevent it from being capable of maintaining stable flight.
‘We’re taking control of all the dynamic flight tasks away so that the pilot can focus on management of the flight itself.’
Skyryse has raised $38m in private equity funding and was initially focused on setting up a network of urban air taxis.
Now, the focus is switching to selling its control systems to helicopter and aeroplane manufacturers.
Groden said that a number of manufacturers, as well as urban air taxi developers, had approached the company about its controls.
As well as being built into new aircraft, the control systems could be retrofitted to existing models.
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