What it's like to fly the Opener BlackFly eVTOL
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- čas přidán 15. 08. 2022
- Hear from an Opener flight test engineer about what it's like to fly the futuristic BlackFly. The eVTOL was designed to give individual owners easy access to the joy of flight. The aircraft flew in the airshow and Twilight Flight Festival at EAA AirVenture 2022.
#flying #aopa #evtol #osh22
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) is the largest community of pilots in the world, providing aviation advocacy, education & inspiration. AOPA has represented the freedom to fly for all pilots since 1939. To learn more about becoming a member visit www.aopa.org/jointoday. - Věda a technologie
![The story behind Opener’s BlackFly [Pivotal Helix] strange-looking design](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5rigtLHpWVI/mqdefault.jpg)
![The story behind Opener’s BlackFly [Pivotal Helix] strange-looking design](/img/tr.png)
Wow... pretty humble guy doesn't know how awesome this really is🤣👌👌
This is insane 🔥🔥🔥
I saw your vehicle at the Pacific Airshow yesterday. It's was very futuristic looking. Looks like the wind was a challenge for a light weight vehicle?
Amazing vehicle. Build in a parachute for the vehicle.
Very interesting--most mature E-VTOL I have seen. I have always felt the most important thing for E-VTOL is to get to airshows like Oshkosh and demonstrate flight and this aircraft did well with a laid back test pilot as laid back as my Light Sport CFI was.
This test pilot has done a good job explaining the aircraft and its viability as an aerial SUV. Even as a fixed wing LSA pilot, recreation-ally I rarely have flown more than an hour, and as an Ultralight trike pilot, even less time. This garage-able aircraft also solves as the test pilot mentions worries about airspace encroachment given the limitations designed into FAR 103.
I can eventually envision longer range for it as new batteries come to market provided its flight management system is engineered and planned to allow those in the coming years.
Innovatively simple and efficient design, well done!
They really should make a small drone version of this. This thing is very simple to make (compared to other multi-mode drones), should allow for some very efficient flight when not hovering and still can takeoff and land nearly vertically. As a camera platform or just for fun it would be a great thing and sell like hot cake. Just put a rotating disk-like payload pod in the center to keep a camera or whatever in a fixed attitude to the ground and you'd have a great platform, much better than normal quads or planes for many applications (not all of course).
As a crewed ultralight it always will be hideously expensive and they will need lots of redundancy and still will have to argue about safety all the time. Everything that is great about this concept is just as great as a drone and it even would be great PR for the ultralight version. Sell it for $999 and they'll land a hit with it. Quads have very limited range (due to no lift, so lots of battery draw in horizontal flight) and planes can't hover.
It really is an absolutely unique and ingenious concept.
very cool design! i'd love to try one out!
This is exactly what I've been looking for, being able to experience flight without the costs of hangers, fuel, costly training etc... If the price is right ;)
42,000!
@@AccidentalPreppper
Wow thats actually not bad!!
I would prefer a little more wing surface just incase even though that wouldn't help you in a hover with sudden power loss.
The fly approves.
Would really be interested in one if they had a usable range.
This VTOL is hard to beat in simplicity and compactness.
There's a caution at the 3:23 mark. Pilots must meet FAA Part 103 regulations so they aren't flying over populated areas or below certain altitudes or in controlled airspace, etc.
That is ok. A few million to a lobbying firm should be able to get these necessary regulations changed.
Years ago, I looked into getting an ultralight for commuting to work in L.A. County. I was looking to go from Long Beach in southern L.A. County to Lancaster in northern L.A. County-approx 100 miles. As mentioned, you couldn’t go through controlled airspace and they had a regulated very low top speed (don’t remember exactly what-30 or 40mph?). Another problem was weather as ultralights couldn’t fly in gusty or high winds and the Lancaster (Antelope Valley) area was known for its winds. They used to say, “If it wasn’t for the wind, we wouldn’t have any weather at all!” LOL. I gave up on the idea.
I doubt anybody with a pilot's license is gonna buy one of these.
At least they are flying higher than 2 feet, so I’ll give it credit there.
How many decibels at 20ft away
This is a cool experimental copter. Would love to take it for a spin! Anyway, thanks for the video folks!
Almost off the bat, I can think of a use for this aircraft in remote areas to be able to carry emergency medical equipment and medicines, and minimal amounts of food to sustain folks for 2 to 3 days until full rescue options are available.
I think it's been years you have been talking about selling the vehicle it gets me all Excited when you keep saying it's going to be on the market and it never happens, I've signed my email address to be on a list and I have not heard a word about it any more
Man was like "Planes worth millions , let me make mine" 😂😂
This seems like the coolest and safest version…looks way safer than jetson
Can it glide if you loose engines? If not, what happens?
It can still "fly" all the way to the crash site
Splat! 😮
Wings seem small so I don’t think it would glide well like a regular plane that can glide for miles also say two motors cut out are you dropping like a rock?
So I will take 5, one for me and one for each of my adult kids:)
what happens if a person puts conflicting inputs into the 2 sticks?
it splits in two mid-air
@@Foxylis12590 😆
You mean if a person suddenly develops into a left-handed person after spending 30 years being right-handed?
@@savedfaves or if they just bump the second stick, or if they want to rest one hand so they switch hands, but are momentarily holding on to both of them...
How much would this cost?
~$150,000
Less than 100 K and mostly likely more than 50 K
BLACKFLY IS A GOOD CONCEPT. BUT THOSE IN CHARGE ARE NOT THE BEST...THE BLACKFY IN THIS VIDEO... HOW LONG DID IT FLY FOR?
I'd like to see a 20 min video of someone actually flying this thing...a lot of people are saying it's not real...
Could it be flown in the UK with no pilot's licence
I will make a garage for my house that the roof slides open for landing:)
LOOKS GREAT. I`D LIKE TO TRY ONE OUT.
Can it glide if it suffers engine failure?
Obviously no,
First of all no engine there,
Its based on Drone Engineering, so all fans, so batery gone, fans broken or gone, = you are literally screwed,
But surely they will ad security once it hits the market, as there is so much thing left,
And 1gen is always the worst,
So even if its market 2nd or 3rd gen would be the perfect version to buy / own.
It's somewhat of a fixed wing craft, so it should be able to glide if the (hydraulic?) control surfaces manage to compensate for the lack of trust on rotors (which are also used as pitch, yaw and roll controls just as the elevons are).
That said, its wings are rather small and probably generate too little lift / weight for this vehicle to maintain a safe vertical speed when landing without any power, and the small rotors probably can't work the same way helicopter main rotors do when their power / transmission fails.
But due to it being a personal ultralight vehicle made of composite materials, it was possible to include a balistic parachute and I'd not be surprised if there is an airbag unit as well. Plus it is an amphibious craft and the vertical speed should be safe enough for landings in water.
Even with those stubby wings, some gliding might be possible. With moving control surfaces it would be possible to at least direct the vehicle toward a location where the ballistic parachute can deploy for a safe landing. A survivable dead stick landing is unlikely unless the pilot has the Right Stuff to land an F-104 dead stick on Rogers Dry Lake.
@@TRak598 The only problems with a ballistic parachute are the usual issues of high cost and minimum effective altitude, plus excessive weight of the parachute system.
I saw a video of this craft and they said it can be fitted with an emergency parachute in the case of a catastrophic failure which is highly unlikely due the several safety redundancies in this craft. Yet that's what they said about the Titanic, so it's good to know there's the parachute...
I don't understand why we can't buy one
I dont understand. This makes no sense. He never said bro? Not once.
The guy sounds like he's more Canadian than maple syrup
Nah bro!
That AOPA is featuring this aircraft in this way would imply that the Black Fly is soon coming to market. Let's hope. When are demo flights coming in my area?
But would this fly on PPL, LAPL or a Heli license???
None of the above. It's a Part 103 ultralight vehicle; no license required. Watch for about 30 seconds beginning at 3:!6.
@@FlyingShotsman i fear for the public order and safety if any old shmo can buy one and fly one of these things but I’d assume they’d only be legal to fly at dedicated flight areas like tracks and practice tracks?
@@pandemoniumcrow Search for "FAR Part 103" and read through what is probably the simplest Federal regulation on the books. The limitations on ultralights are pretty simple. No dedicated flight areas or practice tracks!
@@FlyingShotsman ah see I’m UK based so I’m not sure if that would apply here, I know we have different ultralight and microlight laws to you guys in the states. I know here the CAA would shit themselves if they caught wind of average joes racing flying craft through the sky without licenses lmao… if you need a license for a TV you sure as hell need one to race one of these over here. But idk I doubt these things have even caught the attention of the CAA yet due to how in development they all still are
@@pandemoniumcrow I believe the USA is the only country in the world that allows people with no license what-so-ever to fly, so long as the "air vehicle" (not an "airplane") meets the Part 103 criteria.
i want one
I REALLY REALLY REALLY want one sooooooo bad!!!!!!!
"....we just call it The Bat"
This is very interesting and cool, but until it can serve a purpose it's just an expensive toy. For example, when you can take your wife and two kids, plus the dog, plus luggage, on a five state tour, without having to wait hours to recharge after every few hundred miles, THEN it will serve a porpose. When I can take my wife into town for groceries and supplies, THEN it will serve a purpose. In short, it would need a lot more power, more space, and a liquid fueled engine. What you have now is a vehicle for novelty, and for short flight tourism, or short reconnaissance or survey hops.
Nah. That not the target use of the aircraft. It’s like atv. If you need f150 it’s not going to replace it. But for people who needs something small and portable that’s it. Great little air vehicle this black fly. I already have a few use cases.
Needs some landing gear!
DJI Human
Of all the "flying" cars this has been the one that seems the most exciting because of its ease of use and supposedly projected low cost to consumer. Also the safety features are impressive. Every other flying car either requires one to obtain a pilots license, which is costly and time consuming. Then the prices of nearly every one I've seen has been obscene. Like one I saw in a video that it's selling for $400,000.00 + and it's completely self flying. That's no fun! You should have the option to either fly it yourself or put it on autopilot...
I'm not sure why you call it a "flying car" though. It is not that at all. A flying car can be both an aircraft AND a car, this is only an aircraft.
"Somebody who doesn't have a pilot's license" Perfect, can't wait until the sky is full of them. What can possibly go wrong.?
Probably not going to happen due to the costs and lack of places to land.
Make a one that’s capable to glide, simply put propellers on a glider and I would take 1
Very cool day job!! Kind of like being a paid race car driver😊
For short, low, fast single person evac, i can see this being useful in war
Wonderful development. Have you guys considered something like a Catto Propeller (czcams.com/video/4YIRRotxv8g/video.html) to increase efficiency and eliminate noise?
No x box controllers i hope
Yes
When can I expect delivery?
Within the next two or three years I’m guessing
They're using using Forced Perspective to make the pilot look larger than a child.
Are you saying they're using children? It's like child chimney sweeps all over again 😂
The real question: what is flight time vs charging time?
It's surprisingly fast to charge, according to Opener: 25 minutes (Supercharger) for about the same time of flight.
May be a short flight, but that's more due to battery weight limitations than efficiency, as it is said to consume as much as your average electric car.
If you consider that this vehicle is also much lighter as a whole, you realize that the batteries must be really small, and thus probably not very expensive. Could always have an extra unit for swap then.
Any possibility of solar integration for emergency recharging? Getting it stuck would suck ass to move.
@@Steinerman333 peak solar power is only 150W/m2, If you park it in the sun for a 3 days for a 30 minute flight, yes. Actually that is exactly how the martian helicopter works. But I wouldn't think it is practical. And no, you cannot innovate outside of the law of physics.
I already have experience flying a DJI Mavic so I’ll bet I could fly that thing with half the training they recommend.
Me too
CMON FOLKS !!! OVER 100 GRAND FOR THIS ??? Make it 20 k, so people can afford this....There is only 14 minutes of flight available before full charge is needed....You can sell tens of millions of these worldwide at 20 k prices IF you advertise right, especially in Australia, and New Zealand.......
Why does everything he say sound like a question? That’s a really weird way to talk?
If I had the money to buy one I definitely would for 10 hour trips back and forth to west Texas
This gives off Titan Submarine vibes…..
Looks a bit unstable in all ways.....
The question I always ask of EVTOL, if there is ever a zero thrust condition in cruise, can it be landed in a controlled manner? I don't care if it's gliding, auto-rotating, or a parachute and I acknowledge that every aircraft has an envelope where no thrust is going to crash. If it cannot be landed from cruise in a total failure of thrust, it's a death trap. Don't get me wrong, I'd still have a go, but I'd do so knowing that it's a death trap, but I would not BUY a death trap.
Still, that thing is pretty cool and I hope they prove all skeptics, myself included, wrong.
Other than the hype, I can't imagine why you would develop death traps like this.
A micro helicopter with similar footprint, like the Mosquito, is much more efficient and gives you a chance of survival in the event of engine failure.
Cool, but that UP inflection of the pilot nearly killed me.
Sounds very loud, too much so for city use
Do you need another engineer?
Your CZcams job application? Email them
so now its 2023 .. so whats happening? any updates or has opener gone bankrupt? they have had plenty of time ......dated 3/10/2023
Open Access! Lol
If you could keep the price around $50K, it might be feasible…
Supposedly the price will be about 42k USD.
@@mileycirus9427 Yeah, “supposedly”. Unfortunately supposedly isn’t a real price. Suffice it to say it’ll probably between 60 and 120 K
Only $100,000 + lol
This power line powered passenger drone (a.k.a cable drone ) could be another alternative: czcams.com/video/unKaU5FyDrw/video.html
Why does he ask a question with everything he says?🙄
But it's a flopping sea horse. Why.. that's never going to be a viable commercial configuration and they stuck with it unchanged, zero progress for I don't know how many years now. It may be an opener but it's not a closer.
wiki says first concept flew in 2011. In all this time it never occurred to them that flopping on the ground is less than elegant. How... reminds me of southpark
What "commercial configuration" are you worried about? The test pilot stated clearly in the video that it's a recreational toy for individuals. Seems to me that eliminating landing gear is a pretty clever way to reduce weight and complexity.
@@FlyingShotsman if it didn't have that completely irrational belly it would stand flat at least. doesn't need elaborate landing gear
I agree that some kind of wheels would be great. I didn't like how it flopped down. also hitting the ground like that will eventually damage the bottom wouldn't it? we have 3/4 of an acre that It could take off from but I would want to roll it in and out of my garage and around the back. Maybe some kind of wheels is something to consider. Great job AOPA on the cool videos!!
@FullSmegma Alchemist yeah they just went with a design and never questioned its obvious weaknesses for 10 years. strange.
no worse than cessna though as they designs are from the 1950s and unchanged since.
They have hobbled my knight in the orbitsl rotation
uptalk
when it can carry 400 lbs with an hour of flight time and retractable landing gear at a price point below $60k i'll buy it. til then its just a toy for rich guys.
The way he talks, hard to listen
They really couldn’t incorporate some sort of landing gear? 😂😂😂
Now if they would get off their a$$e$ and sell this. I’d like one before I turn 90
Another rich guy toy no real practical use.😅
The future is exciting
Stupid, dangerous and full of noise and ecological damage! please don’t let this happen to our environment! i absolutely agree to this as an ambulance btw.
It's awful.
Meet George Jetson.....
THRUST, COCKpit, JOYSTICK.
Whats innovative here?!
Its just a big ass drone
It is a hybrid with fixed wings and flight controls and has to be tested for use by humans safely.