GA - Automatisering er på vei, også for helikoptre - AIN

 

April 18, 2023

Skyryse Promises Affordable Automated IFR for Genav Flight automation pioneer Skyryse recently opened a 27,000-sq-ft headquarters in El Segundo, California, as it increases the size of the engineering team developing the FlightOS system it says will support single-pilot, fly-by-wire capability under instrument flight rules (IFR) for helicopters such as the Robinson R66. This expansion follows confirmation from the FAA in February that the company's flight control system has met all of the federal agency's means-of-compliance requirements, clearing the way for it to complete supplemental type certificate (STC) applications. “It means that it’s a clear execution task for us, and we’re in a unique position because no other company has achieved 100 percent means of compliance,” company founder and CEO Mark Groden told AIN. “Part of the reason we can do it is that we didn’t want to take technology off the shelf that the FAA isn’t familiar with, and we’re working to the 10-to-the-minus-9 [safety standard] that is more than what the FAA requires for general aviation aircraft. It wouldn’t be enough just to make these aircraft IFR [capable].” The equipment replaces some of the complex controls in a typical general aviation flight deck with a touchscreen tablet display and a joystick. Fly-by-wire hardware and software handle most of the core piloting functions, according to Skyryse, preventing pilots from inadvertently exceeding safe flight envelopes.