Samson Sky shares updated Switchblade flying car design at AirVenture

Sam Bousfield, CEO of Samson Sky spoke to the assembled press and public at their booth at AirVenture discussing their progress since AirVenture 2023 that has occurred with its Flying Car the Switchblade. In detailing the journey Sam said:

“The big news from last year’s AirVenture is that we flew. This is not anything less than that watershed moment for the company. We had a big crew up at Moses Lake Washington and Frank Kennedy airport and did our first flight on November 5, 2023. Behind me was a flying prototype. This is what went in the air, and we validated a lot of things during flight testing, including stability on all three axes, positive control authority, balanced control feel, and effectiveness of the flaps in descent and landing. All those things, we did great. We also validated that we needed more thrust and less drag.”

“But as soon as we were done with that back home, the R & D team tackled what we needed to hit, which was the last few remaining issues, thrust and drag. The first thing we tackled was, can we make this existing thrust work out for us in the back? After many weeks was decided, no, we were not going to attain our speed goals with the existing design. That was a wakeup call for us, and we went okay, what else can we do, we are not going to give up. We ended up putting everything on the table, everything you can imagine, all designed variations were evaluated, and it was determined that we really needed to embrace a new sleeker body designed with two thrusters. This allowed us to keep most of what worked well in-flight testing and then build upon it to also protect the wings and tail when they are on the ground.”

After this portion of the presentation, Sam moved inside the booth and proceeded to discuss their next-generation Switchblade adjacent to the Wind Tunnel Model that was pole mounted and said: “In May of this year, we validated the increased capabilities of the new model at the University of Washington in Seattle (the Kirsten Wind Tunnel) and we have to manage the increase of thrust and decrease a drag and that tremendously improved upon our initial design.

As you can see from the photo below it maintains the overall architecture of its predecessor and yet it is quite different. The switch to 2 propulsors allowed for a more streamlined fuselage for its 2-seat side-by-side configuration. Looking at the fuselage it looks like it may contribute to the overall lift given its shape, a technique that has been utilized by many famous aircraft designs.

This configuration also maintains Switchblade’s hybrid drive system where the piston engine generator and the wattage it produces, are used for the land-based drive motor system, as well as the 2 propulsors mounted on the tail boom for flight. Sam mentioned that their hybrid drive system will be upgraded from a three-cylinder engine that was used on the flying prototype to a four-cylinder engine.

I asked Sam about their drive system and if they are vertically integrated or if they are utilizing suppliers for the electric side of the system and he responded: “Yes, we are using vendor components. We designed this first pre-production prototype to utilize off-the-shelf components which are proven electrical units drive units, knowing that they’re heavier, but we won’t get any heavier than that in production. So, when we walked down into production, we were talking about having a memorandum of understanding with several providers of electric motors, and generators, and having them built for us to utilize their technology and to make the overall package lighter. So, we tend to go ahead and make things lighter as we go through this hybrid developer program next few months.”

The video below shows the folding and unfolding sequence of the flying side of the Switchblade. Those who have been following this project will notice that the patented swing-wing stowage system remains. Sam noted that the tail assembly is completely enclosed in the retracted mode which will not make it susceptible to tampering.

Watch Enhanced Switchblade Flying Car Design Makes Tail Disappear
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0gnp2wSCg0

Anthony Liberatore, Special to GlobalAir.com