If you've ever ridden in a car that can park itself at the push of a button, you'll appreciate the achievement of Skyryse, which has made a fully-conforming production helicopter that can hover with the swipe of a finger.
Helicopters have been very successful ever since Igor Sikorsky developed the VS-300 in 1939. Since that time they have revolutionized military tactics, civilian travel, and rescue operations – which is surprising since the controls on a helicopter are essentially designed to be used by a three-armed pilot.
The problem with flying a helicopter is that it requires both hands, both feet, and a third hand that you don't have, plus a lot of attention at all times. There's the Cyclic Control that resembles a joystick and controls the pitch of the main rotors, allowing the pilot to go forward, back, left, and right. Then there's the Collective Control – the stick next to the pilot's seat that controls pitch of the individual rotor blades to control lift. The Throttle on the Collective Control feeds power to match the blade pitch. And, finally, foot pedals control the tail rotor to point the helicopter in a particular direction.
Dealing with all this from second to second takes a lot of concentration to avoid pranging the kite. And a lot of stress. That's why helicopter pilots tend to retire young.
There have been a number of attempts to produce a helicopter with a fly-by-wire helicopter with the semi-autonomous capability to hover without pilot control, and Skyryse says that it's hovered a helicopter any number of times in the past, but the recent test flight is different because of the company's SkyOS, which is billed as the world's first universal operating system for flight,
SkyOS allowed SkyRyse to greatly simplify the helicopter cockpit and make it much more streamlined with ergonomic controls that can be operated from either seat. More importantly, the test was the first time that the one-swipe hover was achieved using a production helicopter that was not only triply-redundant, but without any cockpit backup controls.
In other words, it holds out the promise of a new cockpit that can be installed in any conventional helicopter design.
"Until today, every helicopter ever built has taken off using basically the same mechanical controls that Igor Sikorsky used in his first flight 85 years ago," said Mark Groden, CEO of Skyryse. "This latest accomplishment – following our successful achievement of the world’s first fully-automated autorotation, the world’s first aircraft flown with a single control stick, and the world’s first engine-start with the swipe of a finger – will allow any pilot, regardless of experience level, to achieve a perfect takeoff, every time, with just the swipe of a finger."
Source: Skyryse