“Global Innovator Award presented at Capitol Hill in D.C. More on this at the end of the newsletter. I am deeply honored to receive it on behalf of the whole team at Samson Sky.”
CEO & Founder
Hybrid Connections
In case you haven’t seen it, above is a video with Samson Chief Engineer David Nobles, who is starting the hybrid gas engine and running it up to cruise speed as part of the engine tuning process. The engine computer needed to see where cruise speed was and it wasn’t critical that an exact speed was sustained – just that that range was covered.
Now that the engine is running, we have sent the ‘brains’ of the engine (the engine computer) off to the hybrid team in Dayton, Ohio, to establish the communications necessary for the engine to communicate to the rest of the hybrid system. We have electric motor controllers and a master controller that receive info from the engine computer to coordinate back and forth between motors and engine.
Once that communication is established and verified as stable, we can finish the work on the hybrid system design and send the equipment back to Oregon to mount in a ground test unit that we can take on the road. We will use a truck to do this and mount the equipment and propellers in the bed of the truck. This way we can drive it to a test range, do the testing, and drive it back to the R&D facility. I can guarantee we will be getting a lot of looks from drivers enroute! An image of the engine computer is shown below.
We chose MoTeC for our engine computer, as it has capabilities to handle future additions without changing computers.
Saudi Memorandum of Understanding
Last newsletter I disclosed that we had established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. We recently signed an MOU with Saudi Aviation Club in Saudi Arabia, witnessed by pilot and former astronaut, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz in a signing ceremony at the Sand & Fun airshow in Riyadh.
This MOU was for assisting in the expansion of General Aviation (small personal and business aircraft) in the Kingdom, and to bring Switchblades to Saudi. We met with several of the Royal family, and also with the General Authority of Civil Aviation (GACA) in relation to the Switchblade operating in that country. You can see the MOU signing smiles in the image below showing (left to right) Sam Bousfield, Khalid Rubayan (past president of the Saudi Aviation Club), and Samson Board member James Mauch. The link to the Yahoo! News article is at: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-aviation-club-partners-switchblade-133100817.html
Saudi Sand & Fun Airshow Results
As mentioned above, we displayed at the Saudi Sand & Fun Airshow the last week in November. This airshow is the largest in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, and attracts over 100,000 attendees. There were airshows every day and most nights, including a fabulous laser and fireworks show to end the night (see video above).
The Samson booth attracted a lot of attention, including from our very nice neighbors, the Saudi Military, the Military Flight Training, and especially the Saudi Ministry of National Guard. They gave our staff tours of their military helicopters and made sure we got huge slices of their wonderful celebration cake at the end of the event.
Our most famous visitor to the booth was none other than the brother of the King himself, Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, shown in the image below at the booth with Sam Bousfield (his back to the camera) answering a question about the Switchblade. Many other notable people came buy, including several large family investors that we are in talks with regarding Samson.
Our invitation by the Royal Family to exhibit at Sand & Fun opened quite a few doors for us. Although we had a very demanding schedule (14 hours daily for six straight days), the event was of great benefit to the company. Several key agreements were made during or just after the show which pave the way for future production in the MENA region to serve a large number of nations with Switchblades. Many of the introductions and arrangements were done by Samson Ambassador, Anna Grebenshchikova, pictured in the second image below along with Sam Bousfield and Martha Hall Bousfield (Samson Events Coordinator), at the posh Saudi Aviation Club headquarters during Sand & Fun.
Lots of progress on the remaining engineering
The remaining carbon parts needed engineering to be completed before we could make them. This is the main structural frame of the body, and the tail assembly. The tail assembly progressed from 10% done to perhaps 75% done in the last three weeks, so big movement there. The body structures made good progress as well, so we are pushing ahead to get that completed.
We have begun 3D printing the test radiator duct so we can piece that together and bolt it structurally to be able to test it in real world conditions. If you recall, this is one area that gives even seasoned vehicle designers trouble. It is a combination of airflow, pressures, speed of air, speed of water, and size of radiator that have to align well and work together to make a good working cooling system. Not rocket science, but certainly not to be glossed over.
We are going to test it with the radiator size and location, with the front vehicle parts wrapped around the radiator duct and radiator, so we get the real conditions to test with. If we need to re-do the duct we will just 3D print new parts and test again. This seems to be the best way we can get the answer before full assembly and testing when it would be tougher to make changes.
You can see the nose inlet and the hood outlets just ahead of the windshield in the preliminary design image below. You can also see the mono (single) windshield wiper we designed to clear the windshield from rain and snow. It was easier to make this one from another off-the-shelf unit just adding a couple of new parts than it was to try to utilize stock double arm systems that didn’t fit our body shape or window size.
New Animation of the Transforming Switchblade
We created a new animation showing the transformation of the Switchblade from flying mode to driving mode, as you can view with the link below. This one shows the production vehicle with more detail than the image above, and is a very realistic presentation of the production vehicle. You can see the single rear hatch lifting up, with the engine exhaust ports in the hatch which also allow airflow through when lifted up so it is not so much of a ‘sail’. We directed the engine exhaust upwards through the rear hatch to shorten the exhaust path and reduce heat buildup in the engine bay. The exhaust system has a resonance tube that absorbs the soundwave of cruise speed engine operation for lower noise when flying.
Sam Bousfield Awarded in Congress!!
I was awarded the Global Innovator of the Year Award 2025 by U.S. Rep. Danny K. Davis (IL), Member of the House Ways and Means Committee and Ranking Member of the Worker and Family Support Subcommittee. Following this, I was presented with a U.S. Congressional Medallion along with a U.S. Congressional Proclamation by U.S. Rep. Jonathan L. Jackson (IL), Member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Member of the House Agriculture Committee.
These awards were in recognition of my “leadership and achievements in the recent launching of the Switchblade Flying Car”. In the image above is shown Congressman Jackson (L) presenting the award to me (R).
Afterwards I met with other Congressmen and presented the data about the Switchblade at the national level. This, on top of the recent great meetings and assistance on future funding, has made the Atlanta and D.C. trips a big success. I am relentless on getting into production and we are now seeing the attention for the project that it deserves.
The Atlanta trip just previous to the D.C. trip was to meet with representatives from India regarding getting the Switchblade into India and Kazakhstan. I was invited by His Excellency Dr. Nawab Mir Nasil Ali Khan, pictured on the left in the image below with his lovely wife. Pictured to their right is Congressman Jackson and pictured center is the India Consul General for Atlanta, Dr. Ramesh Babu Lakshmanan, with me shown second from the Consul General’s right.
While at the Atlanta event, I was happy to be asked to make a presentation about the Switchblade Flying Car and was pleased that it was well received. There was a lot of interest and enthusiasm from people about the Switchblade and bringing it to India!
Happy Holidays and Celebration Pre-flight!
While the Holidays are often spent with family for these special occasions, wherever they are around the world, I hope you will include us in your thoughts as we do you in ours. You are our ‘extended’ family, and we wish you all the best.
To celebrate the Holidays and the national award and recent company recognition, we are offering one Pre-Flight Special. Something we have not done for a long time, but it is the season to give and a time to celebrate! So we will give one special person a very special Switchblade at an unbelievably low price of $96,000 VFR and $105,000 IFR! This is first come, first serve, so email right away to ensure you get it, if this is for you.
This vehicle will be one of the Founder Edition vehicles which is a Special Edition (SE’s are priced at $330,000), with the Limited Edition dashboard (very pretty), custom designed seating with Founder Edition stitching and my signature, special trim pieces, upgraded stereo and carpeting, Lidar system to call out height above ground on approach to landing, and plaque engraved to commemorate Founder Edition as a numbered edition (# 3 of 141 for example).
This is half the price for a Standard Edition, and early delivery as one of the first vehicles to be produced and delivered. All of the Pre-Flight vehicles are done as our first vehicles to be produced, and all are Special Edition vehicles.
Celebrate with us and join the Samson Team as one of the exclusive Owners whose ranks include many commercial pilots, a NASA engineer and test pilot, aeronautical engineers from Lockheed and Boeing, and many other fine people.
The lucky person should respond to [email protected] to claim the prize!
In the recent articles about our game-changing manufacturing program, I was quoted as saying: “Just having a flying car brings incredible prestige, but being able to say that you built it elevates you to Tony Stark status.”
Maybe you should get your Tony Stark badge and put a $500 Deposit down to gain a fixed delivery position. Deposit
Or at least give yourself a super stocking stuffer by Reserving at no cost! Reserve
Blue Skies,
Sam
CEO/Founder
Switchblade in the News
Check out the latest media about the Switchblade and Samson Sky
Featured Alongside other Exemplary Awardees in Washington D.C.
AvGeekery
They did a nice deep-dive on our vehicle, saying “… the Switchblade might be the coolest one yet” out of all the flying cars they’ve covered.
https://avgeekery.com/switchblade-flying-car/
Yahoo Finance
They gave us great coverage on our new MOU with the Saudi Aviation Club.
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-aviation-club-partners-switchblade-133100817.html
Autoevolution
We appreciate them featuring the Switchblade and pointing out that hybrid vehicles like ours offer much greater flight distances than VTOLs to their nearly 14MM followers.
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/samson-switchblade-flying-sports-car-will-use-a-shackled-ai-to-help-drivers-turn-pilots-261647.html
