Do-eezy flying
brilliant!
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This is actually really great stuff.
You have to see past the "Anyone can fly now" hyperbole. Certainly no regulatory body in any country is going to let "anyone" fly. Pilots will remain highly trained, highly skilled, and in demand. Rules, reg's, airspace, navigation, weather, etc., etc. None of that stuff goes away.
You also have to look past the unfortunate use of the iPad in the demo. Although it clearly shows that the required processing power is trivial to obtain, and equally inexpensive, it does give it kind of an amateurish gloss. Skyryse has said in their press releases that any production capability will be on fully certified hardware and software.
Perhaps more importantly, this isn't really anything new. How many jet aircraft are flown nearly exclusively by twisting knobs and pushing buttons every day? The same level of autopilot and SAS automation exists in more sophisticated helicopters as well.
All Skyryse is doing is taking existing technology to the next level, and that next level isn't much more than a small step up. It's just a full commitment to fly-by-wire, always staying in the "higher modes", and a fresh look at the user interface.
We've already seen how the continuous improvement in size, weight, power and, most important, cost, of technology allows capability once found only in the most sophisticated aircraft to arrive in the cockpits of Cessna 172's and R44's. Ten years ago, who would have believed you'd see the likes of the HeliSAS system in the R44 cockpit for only $40K?
This is going to be the future of aviation. It's not going to make highly trained pilots obsolete, that's just marketing hype designed to pander to potential investors. But pilots are going to have to buy into the automation. It will require a major shift in thinking. Imagine if helicopter accidents were reduced by 90% across the board. No settling with power. No overpitching. No CFIT. Inadvertent IMC becomes an embarrassment but not deadly. Every auto perfect (and Skyrise claims their system can do this). That leaves say 9% due to the inevitable bad weather decisions, unsuitable surfaces and other things that will forever remain pilot-induced.
But that brings us to that last 1%. The 1% due to failures of the technology. That is the crux of the issue. One has to be able to accept this 1% in order to achieve the gains, one hopes large gains, in the other areas. Of course we can argue about whether that number is 1%, 2% or whatever. But it should be pretty small relative to the other potential causes of accidents that such a system would largely prevent.
You have to see past the "Anyone can fly now" hyperbole. Certainly no regulatory body in any country is going to let "anyone" fly. Pilots will remain highly trained, highly skilled, and in demand. Rules, reg's, airspace, navigation, weather, etc., etc. None of that stuff goes away.
You also have to look past the unfortunate use of the iPad in the demo. Although it clearly shows that the required processing power is trivial to obtain, and equally inexpensive, it does give it kind of an amateurish gloss. Skyryse has said in their press releases that any production capability will be on fully certified hardware and software.
Perhaps more importantly, this isn't really anything new. How many jet aircraft are flown nearly exclusively by twisting knobs and pushing buttons every day? The same level of autopilot and SAS automation exists in more sophisticated helicopters as well.
All Skyryse is doing is taking existing technology to the next level, and that next level isn't much more than a small step up. It's just a full commitment to fly-by-wire, always staying in the "higher modes", and a fresh look at the user interface.
We've already seen how the continuous improvement in size, weight, power and, most important, cost, of technology allows capability once found only in the most sophisticated aircraft to arrive in the cockpits of Cessna 172's and R44's. Ten years ago, who would have believed you'd see the likes of the HeliSAS system in the R44 cockpit for only $40K?
This is going to be the future of aviation. It's not going to make highly trained pilots obsolete, that's just marketing hype designed to pander to potential investors. But pilots are going to have to buy into the automation. It will require a major shift in thinking. Imagine if helicopter accidents were reduced by 90% across the board. No settling with power. No overpitching. No CFIT. Inadvertent IMC becomes an embarrassment but not deadly. Every auto perfect (and Skyrise claims their system can do this). That leaves say 9% due to the inevitable bad weather decisions, unsuitable surfaces and other things that will forever remain pilot-induced.
But that brings us to that last 1%. The 1% due to failures of the technology. That is the crux of the issue. One has to be able to accept this 1% in order to achieve the gains, one hopes large gains, in the other areas. Of course we can argue about whether that number is 1%, 2% or whatever. But it should be pretty small relative to the other potential causes of accidents that such a system would largely prevent.
This should get a few laughs. I hope they're including some UFO-detecting code.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxdq...lar200-million
https://www.vice.com/en/article/wxdq...lar200-million
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I can't see a domestic gadget maker like Apple certifying their products for such use. The risk and potential to be sued for tens, even hundreds of million of dollars, simply because you already got that money in the bank from selling your product to the domestic market just isn't worth branching out into this tiny market. This is not Apple's game so expect Apple to state clearly that their products are not certified for use in such an application, they may even update their license agreement to that effect which will then force Skyryse to look elsewhere.
Now where is that little widget in the app for 'Engine stops' and the submenu for 'enter auto, pick a field and carry out an EOL'?.
Perhaps it just defaults to the Kiss your A** Goodbye algorithm
Perhaps it just defaults to the Kiss your A** Goodbye algorithm
Interesting to read in the article that they have demonstrated that the system can "successfully enter autorotation and control the descent". I note that they are careful not to mention selecting a suitable site for a forced landing and then carrying out a successful engine off landing.
Edit - just seen that Crab and I posted virtually the same thing at the same time
Edit - just seen that Crab and I posted virtually the same thing at the same time
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Regardless of who manufactured the ipad/ tablet there likely not willing to accept the risk. So that leaves them making there own tablets
Now where is that little widget in the app for 'Engine stops' and the submenu for 'enter auto, pick a field and carry out an EOL'?
While it may mean a less complex pilot to aircraft interface, as long as that app is not able to interpret the weather, avoid other aircraft and obstacles, do the RT, deal with strange requests from ATC, sort out the emergencies, carry out the inflight decision making and overall, act like a responsible human being, I don't see it catching on anytime soon.
The sad thing is that IT technology is getting closer and closer to being able to deal with all the stuff I just listed....
The sad thing is that IT technology is getting closer and closer to being able to deal with all the stuff I just listed....
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While it may mean a less complex pilot to aircraft interface, as long as that app is not able to interpret the weather, avoid other aircraft and obstacles, do the RT, deal with strange requests from ATC, sort out the emergencies, carry out the inflight decision making and overall, act like a responsible human being, I don't see it catching on anytime soon.
From a professional pilot point of view it might have been a mistake on their part to host this initial demonstrator on an iPad and claim that "anybody can fly". On the other hand, it might have been genius from a capitalization point of view. Combining the ubiquitous, familiar and comfortable (comforting?) iPad with an "anybody can fly" theme seems to be just thing based on their capitalization performance to date.
Certainly they know that not just "anybody" can fly, but to admit that would be to hurt their drive for further investors. Similarly, pretty much anybody who's flown with an iPad has probably had it overheat in the cockpit at least once. These Skyryse folks seem pretty smart. It doesn't seem likely the UI will wind up on an iPad in production.
P.S. I've got no skin in this game. I can't afford to invest (probably why they are not targeting pilots as investors
) and I won't be able to afford to install it in my helicopter. But I do think it is the future.P.P.S. good on Skyryse for going after "real" aircraft with this. It would have been a shame to see them waste their efforts on electric powered VTOL "toys".
Originally Posted by [email protected]
Now where is that little widget in the app for 'Engine stops' and the submenu for 'enter auto, pick a field and carry out an EOL'?.
Perhaps it just defaults to the Kiss your A** Goodbye algorithm
Perhaps it just defaults to the Kiss your A** Goodbye algorithm
”I’m sorry, did you mean “Inter pickled corvette anvil?”
”No! Enter auto, pick a field and carry out an EOL!!”
“I’m sorry, did you mean “Get an interval ticket for Annie Hall?”
Crunch….
Need that 'Like' button again PlasticCabDriver
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What happens if you are happily pottering along in autonomous fly mode when one of your passengers sneezes and lands a great big goob on the bottom left hand corner of the touch screen that controls the flight - right on the cancel button? Wiping the touch screen could put you in aerobatics mode. Would the flight still qualify for green credits?
Building your own hardware to a high standard is expensive. The actual up front costs of building something physical is not that much (look at Raspberry Pi) but the cost of certification to minimum safety standards and protection of intellectual property are quite high. It wasn't too long ago on this forum that someone was quoted north of $200K to replace a failed screen on their AW109.
When I think of all the dumb birds that have strayed into my flight path, or the vehicles/personnel that have strayed into my approach path, I know these things are just gimmicks.
Building your own hardware to a high standard is expensive. The actual up front costs of building something physical is not that much (look at Raspberry Pi) but the cost of certification to minimum safety standards and protection of intellectual property are quite high. It wasn't too long ago on this forum that someone was quoted north of $200K to replace a failed screen on their AW109.
When I think of all the dumb birds that have strayed into my flight path, or the vehicles/personnel that have strayed into my approach path, I know these things are just gimmicks.