Skyfly’s Axe EVTOL aircraft operates both as a conventional fixed-wing aircraft and a helicopter

Skyfly’s two-seat Axe EVTOL air­craft can take off and land con­ven­tion­al­ly in just 50 metres, but it can also take off and land ver­ti­cal­ly with­out a run­way, like the top deck of a yacht.

Axe has a speed of 100mph and a range of 100 miles, which increas­es to 200 miles with an option­al light­weight rotary engine pro­vid­ing elec­tri­cal charge to the bat­ter­ies designed from the ground up to be cer­ti­fied as a home-built light per­son­al air­craft.

It has a sim­ple, light­weight design with fixed-angle wings and rotors to allow for bet­ter range and safe­ty with reduced com­plex­i­ty, and is cur­rent­ly under­go­ing a UK cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process with the Light Air­craft Asso­ci­a­tion expect­ed to be com­plet­ed in 2024.

With a base price of just £150,000 ($180,000), low run­ning costs and com­pact size, Axe will allow pri­vate pilots to fly from home with­out hav­ing to rent hangar space and trav­el to a des­ig­nat­ed air­port.

Founder Michael Thomp­son said: “Axe has two sets of short wings, with engines which do not rotate mount­ed at a 45 degree angle allow­ing for con­ven­tion­al fixed wing take-off and the abil­i­ty to glide at a 10:1 ratio, as well as a mechan­i­cal link­age in the event of engine fail­ure if the redun­dan­cy of the eight engines were to be com­pro­mised.”

Co-devel­oped with aero­nau­ti­cal engi­neer and design­er William Brooks, there is also addi­tion­al secu­ri­ty from a bal­lis­tic para­chute.

Axe CCO Jaap Rade­mak­er claimed: “Where the whole mar­ket for EVTOL focus­es on four- to six-seat air taxis, which cost mil­lions and have a very com­plex and long cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process, Axe sells for £150,000 plus VAT — the price of a sports car.

“Axe is easy to fly and hov­er, allow­ing you to get to your week­end home in a quar­ter of the time a Tes­la would take, and because com­mer­cial air taxis will not be autonomous for a decade or so, they will require pilots to be trained to fly EVTOLs.

“Axe is aimed at exist­ing pilots and air­craft own­ers, who will no longer need to rent large hangars next to estab­lished air­craft run­ways and can fly from their front door direct­ly to their des­ti­na­tion.

“We also have inter­est from supery­acht man­u­fac­tur­ers and own­ers: the Axe is so qui­et and com­pact that, com­bined with its option to autoland on the top deck of a yacht, it will allow pas­sen­gers to fly them­selves to and from the shore.

“Anoth­er group is pri­vate jet oper­a­tors who want to get clients from their home to an air­port as quick­ly as pos­si­ble, with­out the need for noisy and expen­sive heli­copters.”

Axe com­po­nents such as the con­trol sys­tems, bat­ter­ies and elec­tric engines come from
mar­ket lead­ers such as Geiger and Emben­tion. Option­al extras include a LIDAR sys­tem and a hom­ing patch aboard a mov­ing yacht.