The Pivotal BlackFly is an American electric-powered VTOL personal air vehicle designed by Canadian engineer Marcus Leng.2023 has been a huge year for our #eVTOL company, from our transition from Opener to Pivotal, to the announcement of Helix. We took #BlackFly to airshows across the country and completed multiple successful deliveries to early access customers. Take a look back at #2023 with us.
source.image: Pivotal
The aircraft is made from carbon-fiber reinforced epoxy with all-electric battery-powered propulsion. It has two 13.6 ft (4.15 m) cantilevered tandem wings, on the front and rear of a short fuselage. The fuselage has a single-seat cockpit under a bubble canopy.
source.image: Pivotal
The forward wing is low, and the rear wing high, giving the cockpit good forward visibility. Each wing has four tractor configuration contrarotating propellers powered by electric motors. The tractor configuration prevents the flexible propellers from contacting the airframe. Each wingtip has winglets to improve lateral stability and reduce vortex drag.
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The aircraft weighs 313 lb (142 kg) empty and can carry a pilot and baggage totaling 250 lb (113 kg). It can accommodate a pilot of up to 6.5 ft (1.98 m) in height. A ballistic parachute is optional. The wing-mounted tractor propellers move air over the wings, reducing stall speeds. So, at pitch angles near zero degrees, the aircraft can fly slowly with high angles of attack. For efficient horizontal flight, the aircraft pitches down 45 degrees, canting the wings and propellers to an optimal angle of attack.
Pilot controls are a joystick with a thumb control for altitude. Flight controls are triple-redundant fly-by-wire controlling the motors and dual elevons on the outer edge of both wings. Differential motor speeds provide control authority in pitch, roll and yaw. Elevons also permit control in an efficient unpowered glide mode.
