Skyryse – Simplifying Aircraft Control with New Technology

The company is off to a good start. Earlier this year, they introduced and began taking reservations for a modified Robinson R66 helicopter they call the Skyryse One. A 2,700-pound, four-place, turbine-powered helicopter, over 1,000 examples of the R66 have been manufactured since its introduction in 2010. The R66 is itself a re-engined version of the successful piston-powered R44 that was introduced in 1993.

To create the Skyryse One, Skyryse replaced the R66’s traditional mechanical flight control system with their SkyOS system. Gone are the original control sticks, collectives, and rudder pedals. In their place is a single, centrally-mounted control stick and a touchscreen. Because existing components are removed from the aircraft, Skyryse claims the net weight increase of the SkyOS system is negligible.

The stick itself incorporates multiple control inputs. Nudging it forward, back, left, or right moves the helicopter in the desired direction while maintaining the heading. Twisting it left or right yaws the nose left or right and is generally only used while in a hover. By using your thumb to nudge a spring-loaded, horizontal bar up or down, the helicopter can be commanded to climb or descend.

A demonstration flight in the company’s simulator was illuminating. From an idle on the runway, a swipe up on the touchscreen brought the R66 from the ground up into a stable hover. The transition to forward flight was accomplished by holding the stick forward and holding it fully to the right brought the helicopter into a bank angle that was artificially limited to about 30 degrees. This artificial envelope protection makes it impossible to roll or pitch to unsafe attitudes.

As the helicopter was flown through a standard traffic pattern, it became clear that old piloting habits are tough to break. The natural tendencies of a fixed-wing or rotary-wing pilot, such as lessening the control input or introducing opposite control input as the desired heading or bank angle is reached, are counterproductive in the Skyryse One. The Skyryse instructor pilot explained that this is indeed the case and that people with no flight experience whatsoever can sometimes adapt more quickly to the Skyryse controls, as they have no antiquated habits to unlearn.

The instructor pilot observed that because the control of the aircraft is so simple, an entirely new category of pilot certification might become appropriate for aircraft using the SkyOS system. Just as the operator of a standard consumer drone might not benefit from thorough training on the concepts of traditional rotary wing flight, a future SkyOS pilot might not require each element of traditional pilot training. From an FAA certification perspective, the resulting pilot certification could resemble a multi-engine rating with a centerline thrust restriction, limiting the certificate holder to aircraft equipped with SkyOS.

Naturally, such dependence on computerization and automation welcomes questions about safety and redundancy. To that, Skyryse offers reassurance that they have engineered triple redundancy in both mechanical parts as well as in their electronics and code. In aviation, redundancy is a design principle in which separate and independent systems perform the same function in parallel – should one or even two systems fail, the backup or the backup’s backup would then take over. Skyryse claims SkyOS’s reliability has demonstrated a failure rate of ten to the negative eighth, or one failure in one hundred million flight hours.

So when might we expect to see helicopters and airplanes equipped with SkyOS? Skyryse’s first installation on the R66 is presently in certification and is expected to be complete by the end of this year, with first deliveries expected in 2025. The package will be offered both as a complete helicopter for $1.8M or as an option that can be installed on an existing R66 for approximately $500,000.

Beyond the R66, Skyryse will be expanding to other aircraft types and is considering offering the system as an aftermarket upgrade to existing, legacy aircraft in the form of supplemental type certificates. The latter framework would resemble advanced instrument panel upgrades, in which an aircraft owner or operator would take their aircraft to an authorized dealer to install the upgrade on their existing aircraft. The downstream effects of such an upgrade are uncertain but could result in lower operating costs, ranging from maintenance to insurance rates to pilot training requirements.

For now, the industry eagerly awaits Skyryse’s forthcoming certification and entry into service. If all goes to plan, the new system has the potential to revolutionize the pilot/aircraft interface to a degree never before seen in the history of aviation.