“Pivotal Announces One BlackFly eVTOL Achieves 1,000 Crewed Flights”

Per­son­al eVTOL air­craft devel­op­er, Piv­otal, recent­ly announced at the UP.Summit in Arkansas, U.S, that a sin­gle Black­Fly air­craft has logged more than 1,000 crewed flights since it was deliv­ered to an ‘Ear­ly Access Pro­gram’ mem­ber in 2023, reports a press release. 

The release states, “This marks the most flights of any sin­gle pow­ered-lift eVTOL air­craft in his­to­ry, fur­ther cement­ing the com­pa­ny’s rep­u­ta­tion for inno­va­tion, record-break­ing per­for­mance, oper­a­tional matu­ri­ty, and real-world reli­a­bil­i­ty.”

Dozens of Piv­otal-built devel­op­men­tal air­craft have suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed more than 8,000 flights as well as over 2,000 pilot­ed flights, since the world’s first crewed eVTOL flight by the com­pa­ny’s founder in 2011. 

In the last three years alone, Piv­otal eVTOLs have flown in over 100 dif­fer­ent loca­tions across the Unit­ed States.

Fel­low Fly­ers

Tim Lum, a Black­Fly own­er enthused, “The real mag­ic isn’t just the fly­ing; it’s also in shar­ing that expe­ri­ence; watch­ing my friends progress through Pivotal’s train­ing, from their first vir­tu­al flights to con­fi­dent­ly pilot­ing the air­craft them­selves, has been so reward­ing.” 

He con­tin­ued, “Piv­otal has cre­at­ed both a sen­sa­tion­al air­craft and a sys­tem that allows me to safe­ly share the mag­ic of flight. We’ve essen­tial­ly start­ed our own small fly­ing club, and it’s a blast.”

These light per­son­al eVTOLs are engi­neered for a high lev­el of acces­si­bil­i­ty. Designed for the FAA Part 103 Ultra­light cat­e­go­ry, they do not require a pilot’s licence to oper­ate in the U.S. The com­pa­ny has now cer­ti­fied over 50 pilots through its unique train­ing pro­gram.

Ken Karklin, CEO of Piv­otal, remarked, ”Sur­pass­ing 1,000 crewed flights with a sin­gle eVTOL air­craft is an avi­a­tion first. Our tech­nol­o­gy is as reli­able as it is rev­o­lu­tion­ary. For per­son­al flight as well as pub­lic safe­ty and defence appli­ca­tions, the impact of this light eVTOL design and aero infra­struc­ture is pro­found.”

Bran­don Goff, co-founder of Native Teach­ing Aids, cre­ative direc­tor and edu­ca­tion­al soft­ware devel­op­er, added, “The Black­Fly stands out as my most unique and enjoy­able flight expe­ri­ence. Its unmatched sim­plic­i­ty, han­dling, per­for­mance, and flight dynam­ics sur­pass any­thing I’ve ever flown. After more than 25 flights in a wide range of con­di­tions, this vehi­cle has proven con­sis­tent­ly ele­gant, sta­ble, and con­fi­dence-inspir­ing.”

Piv­otal describes the eVTOL:-

: It can take off and land ver­ti­cal­ly on a range of sur­faces includ­ing grass, pave­ment, snow, or ice, and is designed to be trans­portable, fit­ting in a 16’ trail­er and ready to fly in 30 min­utes.

: It cruis­es at up to 63 mph with a typ­i­cal charge range of 20 miles or 20 min­utes with a full 20 per­cent reserve.

: Is effi­cient, fault-tol­er­ant and with low com­plex­i­ty.

: Cloud-con­nect­ed with a state-of-the-art dis­play and smart flight con­trollers; in flight the soft­ware man­ages motor speeds and oth­er con­trol sur­faces auto­mat­i­cal­ly for smooth, pre­cise oper­a­tion. 

: Pivotal’s per­son­al air­craft includ­ing the new Helix and lega­cy Black­Fly weigh less than 350 pounds emp­ty; uses eight elec­tric motors and tran­si­tions seam­less­ly from hov­er to for­ward flight.

Final specs are expect­ed to be released before the end of year.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.pivotal.aero

(Top image: Piv­otal eVTOL)

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