Skyfly Axe: Vertically Capable

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Powerplants, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

The Skyfly Axe is vertically capable, a new phrase (to your editor) for an aircraft capable of ascending vertically from its starting point and flying about on its own.  We first reported on this machine when it was still under development three years ago and it has kept the outward appearance it had then.  The price, as with all such things, has gone up and now sits around $295.000 ($400,700 US).  40 are on order, and you can reserve a delivery slot for ten percent of the final price.  (Skyfly’s website explains that those in the United Kingdom can reserve an Axe for £1000 ($1,358 US).  That applies only to those living in the UK, who also have to pay the dreaded Value Added Tax (VAT) on such transactions.  Those in other countries escape the tax and reserve a production slot for their 10-percent deposit. Speed and Safety The Axe offers reasonable speed for a craft able to take off …

Flying Machines in Your Two Car Garage

Dean Sigler Announcements, Electric Powerplants, Sky Taxis, Sustainable Aviation Leave a Comment

A flying machine in your two-car garage was the promise heralded by Popular Science and Popular Mechanics magazines during the 1950s and 1960.  It was the era of Bob Cummings piloting his Aerocar on his popular TV show, and KISN radio watching over traffic with one in Portland, Oregon.  Expectations were high and often disappointed. High costs of establishing a network of two-ton, four-passenger eVTOL (electric Vertical Take Off and Landing) machines dissuaded even Uber from pursuing that goal.  Consider that skyports, vertiports, or whatever they ended up as are enormously expensive, and a network with charging stations and passenger accommodations would be a large investment.  Beyond that, each sky taxi would cost well into the high six figures, something that would require corporate ownership rather than the owner/driver model on which Uber’s land-based operations depend. At least four eVTOLs are now on the market or headed there.  None cost more than a claimed $150,000 base price, a plausible outlay …