Samson Sky is making history by providing high-performance in both modes. This hasn’t been easy! But we keep making progress towards the goal in perfecting the vehicle design, including the hybrid system we call the Skybrid™.
“We are now mid-way through a great year for Samson, with many more exciting things to come.”
CEO & Founder
More Success on Radiator Tests
Yes, not as sexy as the folding wings and tail, but it is the way to ‘keep cool’. The radiator system is very key to any vehicle design, and one of the most challenging to any vehicle project.
We are going at this from the Space-X point of view. Engineer it to a degree, then test in the real world, break things by pushing it to its limits, and perfect the system. Most systems and mechanisms are much more predictable and easy to engineer, and of course we just apply engineering principles to them and get them done. The radiator system is a different animal, especially when we have to deal with both driving mode and flying mode.
The fourth test series was finished yesterday, and the engineers went over the results. It showed us that we are still on track and not being boxed in with too small of a radiator. That is the main thing to determine and find out early. We have found some duct shape information that is helping as well. More to go to be fully ready for the grand finale test, but the link below shows a snapshot of a day in the life of the Samson R&D Team:
Steering in the Works
The image below is a view of the steering column adjustment mechanism. Most vehicles allow the driver to adjust the seat position, and some also allow adjustment of pedals and steering wheel. In our case, we can accommodate greater difference in ‘people size’ by keeping the seat fixed and letting people adjust the steering wheel and pedal location.
When we went to take these items from the car world, though, we found they were very heavy and not workable for a flying vehicle. We had to go at it with engineering to do the same thing, but with half the weight.
Samson Engineer Pardhu Vadrevu has been developing the adjustable steering system based on what the auto industry does, but with lighter weight involved. We will have two steering systems built in so that the vehicle can be driven in right-hand drive countries as well as left-hand drive.
Pedal Movement Allowed
We have given a lot of attention to make the Switchblade easy to use and safe for drivers, new pilots, and experienced pilots as well. One aspect of this is the pedals used for driving and flying. As we mentioned above, the pedals also move to account for legs of different length. The system is in the works and not finished yet, but the initial layout is shown below. We had to account for the right pedal to operate independently as the gas pedal on the ground, and in the air it would be right rudder pedal connected to the left rudder pedal. Rudder pedals are used in almost all aircraft to point the nose left or right in flight.
In the image below, the large pin at the top connects the two rudder pedals so they operate as a pair when locked together for flight, and when unlocked the right pedal operates independently as a gas pedal. The center pedal is always a brake pedal, located where a car brake would normally be. The two pins and the box just above the pedals operate to slide the system in and out for adjustment through the actuator, located under the lower right of the box.
In this preliminary stage, not all is refined – just laid out in a working arrangement. Next will be to apply refinement to the design and simplify the design until it is a production ready unit.
Hybrid System Comparison
Samson is making history by providing high-performance in both modes. This hasn’t been easy! But we keep making progress towards the goal in perfecting the vehicle design, including the hybrid system we call the Skybrid™.
This system needed to be lightweight, so it doesn’t use a battery, as is normally found in hybrid electric vehicles. Instead, it uses advanced electronics to push electricity from the generator to the electric prop and wheel motors directly. Greater technical skill is needed to develop a hybrid system like this compared to a typical hybrid system. Using a battery would be simpler to achieve but the batteries weigh too much for us to consider using them for the Switchblade.
Our production vehicle will be using a highly developed and advanced axial flux electric motor/generator by Asruk in Slovenia. They are in big demand and are increasing their production to accommodate us, but we decided to move forward with the advanced electric motors we already had in the shop to do testing now. We can swap out electric motors and generators later for the production motors from Asruk, once they become available to us..
To give an example of why we would do this, the first image below is using three AIM axial flux generators linked and mounted to the gas engine on the left. This setup weighs about 110 lb for the generator portion. The second image below shows the same gas engine with the two Asruk axial flux generators that would be for production. Much more compact and the generators weigh half as much.
In our test rig, the engineers cleverly designed the generator mount plate to be able to mount the existing AIM generators or the future Asruk generators. Nice going Team!
Ready For a Switchblade?
The dream of a lifetime is at your fingertips. Flying or driving, the choice is yours. Remember when you were a kid, and dreamed of flight? That is the future.
You don’t have to own one, but just think what it would give you. Freedom of travel on your own schedule and terms – no TSA, rental car lines, cancelled flights. More time visiting friends and relatives and less time getting there. The feeling of competence that good pilot training provides. A way to expand your business without being away from home so much. And it is fun to drive. Try 0-60 in 5 seconds and see what that feels like.
When you make a $500 non-refundable Deposit, you are given a fixed Delivery Position for your Switchblade. The other option is to simply Reserve and get your name on the Switchblade Reservation List with no money down.
Deposit or Reserve
Yours,
Sam Bousfield
Captain, Switchblade Team
Recent Media
Switchblade news worth celebrating. In case you missed it:
AvGeekery – Where Aviation Passion Meets Expertise
The Switchblade Flying Car Does What No Other Flying Car Can, and You Can Reserve It Now
https://www.samsonsky.com/avgeekery-where-aviation-passion-meets-expertise/
autoevolution – Following the evolution of the auto industry
Samson Switchblade Flying Sports Car Will Use a Shackled AI to Help Drivers Turn Pilots
