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Fully enclosed cockpit
Pilot is sitting in a fully enclosed space frame cockpit with a composite material shell around it. A large transparent windshield is designed to provide the best possible view for the pilot. The cockpit is positioned in a way that the pilot's mass doesn't change aircraft's perfect weight distribution, i.e., the pilot's center of gravity exactly matches center of gravity of the empty aircraft.
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Isolated ducted propulsors
Every rotor is fully isolated both aerodynamically and electrically - every propulsor has a dedicated power source and power management system. One of the main principles behind the enclosed rotor design, besides better aerodynamic characteristics of ducted rotors, is that it is much safer for the pilot and surroundings, and also breaks the mental barrier we all have after looking at tips of high-speed rotors.
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Lightweight structure
In order to be able to efficiently fly with a body that has a surface area of more than 30 m2, it can not be built using off-the-shelf materials and has to be carefully designed and produced. The body is made from a combination of carbon fiber and glass fiber composite materials, and just one side of the body requires a twelve-part mold to produce. Other parts of the aircraft are made from a combination of composite materials and various metals in order achieve a low overall weight.
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Fully electric
Lithium-based batteries provide the power, while the main power consumers are brushless direct current motors providing necessary torque for thrust generation. Our high-power fast charger enables the aircraft to be fully recharged and back in air quickly. The pilot has access to mechanical switches for mechanically disconnecting each of the batteries. The power up is safely controlled using a pre-charge stage. Aircraft control is also fully electric and features an advanced fusion algorithm enabling safe and stable flight based on measurements from accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers, and GPS data alongside computer vision providing information about the surroundings.
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Minimum overall size
We know that aircraft with a purpose like this has to be car parking spot size, easy to maintain, mechanically and electrically robust, emission-free, and smaller and quieter than a helicopter in order to be a perfect candidate for future urban air mobility. In the following sections, you can learn more about our design and its overall size. The largest parts of the structure, left and right body, have just eight mounting points in total.
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Built-in redundancy
The aircraft is designed to be capable of a safe emergency landing if flight computer detects any type of propulsor or other system malfunction. Each propulsor battery is separately controlled and monitored. There is no part in the control system that does not have redundancy - joysticks and mechanical switches can be overridden using touchscreen controls, while for each sensor there are at least a few more electrically and physically isolated backups that can be used in case of failure.
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Sophisticated monitoring
The aircraft is equipped with a few hundred sensors that monitor the thermal state of all subsystems, power distribution and energy consumption, flight parameters, and provide data necessary for understanding the surroundings. The pilot has a digital cockpit that includes a touchscreen with a graphical user interface and can check sensor measurements at any time. All measurements can be radio transmitted for remote monitoring using our FlightMonitor application.
