UK-based startup airframer Samad Aerospace, which is making its EBACE debut, recently launched its Starling line of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. At its booth (J100) it is displaying a flying scale prototype of its blended-wing concept, which uses fans integrated into its fuselage for lift, as well as a pair of aft tilting fans that provide forward thrust.
“The way that we have overcome the issue of transition, is we are separating the entire vertical and horizontal flight,” Samad CEO Seyed Mohseni told AIN.
The company has mapped out its development, from a UAV version at the end of 2019; to the e-Starling, a larger air-taxi, all-electric version capable of carrying a pilot and six passengers with a top speed of 300 mph; to the hybrid Starling Jet, which is anticipated to have a range of up to 1,500 miles with a pilot and nine passengers. According to Mohseni, the hybrid variant will be the fastest civilian eVTOL in the world, with a maximum speed of 460 mph.
Samad looks to fly a 50 percent scale manned demonstrator of the air-taxi version in the first half of 2020, with the full-size version to come the following year.
