Skyryse has been flight-testing
elements of the
FlightOS system for seven years,
including runs in this 2017 uncrewed
testbed. (Skyryse Photo)
assisting Skyryse in developing an R66 automated flight control system. “We have been following their progress,” he says. Also in 2020, Skyryse closed on $205 million in series B
funding, bringing the company’s total capital raised to more than $260 million from investors that include ArrowMark Partners, Cantos, Eclipse Ventures, Fidelity Investments, Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford, Monashee Investment Management, Stanford University, and Venrock. In April of last year, Air Methods invested $5 million in
Skyryse and committed to retrofit with FlightOS more than 400 single-engine helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft in its air ambulance fleet. Calling FlightOS “a transformational technology for the industry,” Air Methods Senior VP of Aviation Operations Leo Morrissette says deploying it on the company’s aircraft “will first and foremost improve safety, lower cockpit workload, and allow our fleet to fully maximize the potential of patient care in a wide range of aircraft models and types.” Te air ambulance operator plans to install FlightOS on
its fleets of Airbus EC130 and AS350 helicopters as well as its Bell 407s and Pilatus single-engine turboprop PC-12s, removing all current avionics suites in the process. “In seven years of flight testing that’s been nearly every
single day, we’ve also been testing different ways to control the aircraft and engage the pilot to control the aircraft,” Groden says. “I think what sets us apart, in addition to a very pragmatic approach that’s well informed by our real- world experiences, is that we’ve actually been testing different pieces of this technology for a very long time and learning on a daily basis with that feedback loop.” Skyryse has grown from around 30 employees at the
44 ROTOR JUNE 2023
start of 2022 to nearly 100 by March 2023, and it’s recruiting engineers. In March, it opened its new headquarters in El Segundo. Tis year is shaping up to be exceptional for Skyryse. Te plan is to maintain throughout the year the momentum with which the company started 2023 and carry that into Anaheim, California, at HAI HELI-EXPO 2024 next year. Skyryse plans to unveil a prototype that’s more represen- tative of its STC system, including aviation-grade touch- screens in place of the current iPads, at Los Angeles–area events in mid-November. Achieving its goal of having a FlightOS-equipped R66 in daily commercial service by September 2024, of course, depends on Skyryse’s progress with FAA STC certification. Te company said in February that a major system review with the FAA resulted in 100% approval of its proposed means of compliance for full installation. Progress may hinge on decisions the Skyryse team made
at the very start of FlightOS’s development, Groden says. “Te approach we took at the outset was to follow existing
certification pathways and bases the FAA has created over the last 30 or 40 years in developing Part 25 fly-by-wire automation systems and flight-control stacks,” he says. “We decided we weren’t going to invest in or build into our product anything that doesn’t have a certification basis.” After that, it was a matter of explaining that rationale to
the FAA. Groden adds that his company’s approach helped gain
the agency’s buy-in. “Te FAA’s mandate is to keep people safe, in the sky
and beneath it,” Groden adds. “Tat’s what we’re about as a company.”
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