SkyDrive Collaborates with Stirling Dynamics “to Design and Manufacture Pilot Control Stick for eVTOL SD-05 Production Aircraft”

Sky­Drive recent­ly announced it has entered into a devel­op­ment agree­ment with UK-based Stir­ling Dynam­ics Ltd, a sub­sidiary of Expleo, reports a press release. Under this agree­ment, Stir­ling, an engi­neer­ing, tech­nol­o­gy and con­sult­ing group, will sup­ply the Pilot Con­trol Stick for the Sky­Drive SD-05 air­craft.

This col­lab­o­ra­tion marks anoth­er step for­ward for the Japan­ese com­pa­ny and the devel­op­ment of its eVTOL, as Sky­Drive works to ful­fil its mis­sion of “tak­ing the lead in the once-in-a-cen­tu­ry mobil­i­ty rev­o­lu­tion” and a vision of cre­at­ing a future where the pub­lic use eVTOLs to meet their dai­ly mobil­i­ty needs.

Stir­ling Dynam­ics is an estab­lished UK-based advanced engi­neer­ing com­pa­ny with over 35 years of expe­ri­ence in deliv­er­ing high-per­for­mance, safe­ty-crit­i­cal sys­tems across the aero­space and marine sec­tors.

The release explains, “Stir­ling Dynam­ics deep under­stand­ing of pilot-in-the-loop sys­tems, ergonom­ic design and high-fideli­ty force feed­back, aligns seam­less­ly with SkyDrive’s goals for the pilot con­trol stick project and these qual­i­ties, com­bined with the company’s proven track record of par­tic­i­pa­tion in both mil­i­tary and com­mer­cial avi­a­tion pro­grams, makes them the ide­al part­ner for this ini­tia­tive.”

A con­trol stick pro­duced by Stir­ling Dynam­ics for train­ing and sim­u­la­tion (Cred­it: Stir­ling Dynam­ics)

Arnaud Cov­ille, Chief Devel­op­ment Offi­cer of Sky­Drive, com­ment­ed, “Stir­ling Dynam­ics’ expe­ri­ence in sup­ply­ing pilot-cen­tric solu­tions aligns per­fect­ly with our goal of cre­at­ing a flight con­trol expe­ri­ence that is intu­itive, respon­sive and safe. Togeth­er, we are set­ting new stan­dards in eVTOL cock­pit design and redefin­ing what it means to fly in the next gen­er­a­tion of elec­tric air­craft.”

The release con­tin­ues, “The two par­ties aim to design and deliv­er a pilot con­trol stick sys­tem that sets new stan­dards for per­for­mance and respon­sive­ness. With both par­ties com­mit­ted to the deliv­ery of high-qual­i­ty solu­tions for the aero­space mar­ket, this part­ner­ship rep­re­sents an oppor­tu­ni­ty to achieve sig­nif­i­cant steps for­ward in both inno­va­tion and user-focused design.”

Ban­du­la Pathi­nayake, VP of Stir­ling, remarked, “In trans­form­ing the future of trans­porta­tion, by cre­at­ing advanced and reli­able eVTOL solu­tions, we are proud to sup­port Sky­Drive with the design, devel­op­ment, cer­ti­fi­ca­tion and man­u­fac­ture of the pilot con­trol stick. By com­bin­ing SkyDrive’s inno­v­a­tive approach to air­craft design with our engi­neer­ing exper­tise, we look for­ward to the devel­op­ments ahead and to shap­ing the future of urban air mobil­i­ty.”

For more infor­ma­tion

https://en.skydrive2020.com/

https://www.stirling-dynamics.com

(Top image: From l to r — Arnaud Cov­ille, Chief Devel­op­ment Offi­cer of Sky­Drive; Ban­du­la Pathi­nayake, VP of Stir­ling Dynam­ics; and Rajesh Krish­na­murthy, CEO of Expleo, at the Paris Air Show)

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