FlyNow’s eCopter is a modular design that features coaxial main rotors
As if there weren’t already enough eVTOL air taxis in an already overcrowded market, another contender has entered the lists. However, this one has eschewed the complex tiltrotors or myriad mini-rotors designs with a system that has already been used with considerable success on machines like the Kaman K-Max – coaxial main rotors.
One of the biggest issues facing the designers of rotary wing aircraft is countering the forces produced by a single main rotor. This typically requires a tail rotor, or fenestron, which increases complexity, cost and weight while draining power from the main rotor. Coaxial main rotors address the problem, as FlyNow Aviation recently demonstrated with the first untethered test flights of its modular eCopter family.
Although the Austrian company has been working on the project since 2019 and made the first flights of a scale model in 2021, it has only now started flying a full-size prototype. FlyNow’s eCopter is a modular design and the range will include a two-seater, a cargo version with a 200kg payload capable of carrying a standard Euro pallet, in addition to dedicated firefighting and rescue models.
PHOTO: FLYNOW
