World's first aircraft to fly with six barrel-shaped "Cyclorotors"

 Cyclotech's Blackbird airframe flying car begins flight testing                

After many years of innovation and prototype testing, CycloTech’s air car concept has taken flight, offering a glimpse into a future where personal air travel is a reality. With the revolutionary CycloRotor propulsion system at its core, this unique aircraft could redefine urban mobility, offering unparalleled agility and control. One of the most fascinating aircraft in the eVTOL space has moved into flight testing with a new large-scale prototype. Cyclotech's Blackbird airframe becomes the world's first aircraft to fly with six barrel-shaped "Cyclorotors" for propulsion. The Austrian-based Cyclotech team has been working on commercializing its wacky-looking barrel rotors for a long time now, they started back in 2011 under the name D-Dalus. But the central technology here is both fascinating and a potentially big advantage in these early days of electric vertical takeoff aircraft. In a move that could reshape personal air travel, CycloTech has unveiled its long-awaited eVTOL air car concept, the CruiseUp. With 15 years of development and prototype testing behind it, this revolutionary aircraft promises a unique blend of innovation and practicality. Designed for cross-town hops and short-distance commuting, the CruiseUp stands out not only for its futuristic design but also for its exceptional manoeuvrability. Each propulsion barrel is set to spin at a constant rate, and the "walls" of the barrel are made up of tilting airfoil blades in an arrangement best known as a Voith-Schneider Propeller. In much the same way as a helicopter adjusts individual blade pitch constantly as they travel around the central hub, the blades in the Cyclorotors are constantly adjusted as the barrels spin. It even uses a similar arrangement to a helicopter's swashplate, a mechanical design which uses a tilting disc to ensure that each blade is perfectly tuned to tilt into the airflow at the perfect point in its rotation then tilt back out again.

CycloTech, headquartered in Linz, Austria, has centered its mission on commercializing the CycloRotor propulsion system, a concept originally developed in the maritime world and more commonly known as Voith-Schneider propellers. These rotating barrel-shaped devices create thrust using wing blades which tilt as the barrel spins, much like helicopter rotors. This design allows for rapid thrust vectoring in 360 degrees, enabling quick directional changes, whether downward for takeoff and landing, rearward for acceleration, or upward for stability. You can super-quickly vector the thrust the Cyclorotor produces, with 360-degree freedom, and when you're talking about VTOL aircraft which need to adjust thrust across multiple propulsion units near-instantaneously in order to balance against wind gusts in a hover, the Cyclorotors solve a problem. Regular propellers need time to spin up to increase their thrust, and while electric motors deliver strong torque on demand, they can't respond as quickly as Cyclotech's blade tilt adjustments. The CruiseUp, that looks more than a little like a flying high heel, is about one and a half times the size of a standard ground car and seats two passengers. It features six CycloRotors, with four positioned at the corners and two mounted fore and aft of the cabin. While it lacks traditional wings, these CycloRotors provide the necessary thrust for flight. However, this constant thrust requires significant energy, resulting in a top speed of 150 km/h and an estimated range of 100 km. They also offer, at least a different risk profile when it comes to birds, bystanders and other foreign objects. The packaging might make them a little less intimidating on takeoff, and they certainly make for a compact and futuristic-looking aircraft. They have successfully completed multiple rounds of ground testing for the BlackBird Demonstrator, ensuring it’s ready for its maiden flight. Reliability and performance are on track.    

CycloTech says that the CruiseUp won’t take to the skies until at least 2035 or later. The company is waiting for the eVTOL air taxi and shuttle industry to mature, regulatory hurdles to be cleared, and energy storage solutions to advance. Despite its futuristic aspirations, CycloTech maintains a reasonable timeline. The prototype flown is known as "Blackbird", was put together with impressive speed, going from concept to first flight. It runs a Cyclorotor at each corner, much like a quadcopter drone, but adds a pair of barrels under the front and rear of the aircraft that are mounted at right angles. These will kick in some additional vertical thrust and add redundancy in case of failure, but they also give Blackbird the ability to add a sideways or twisting component of thrust for manoeuvring. It might be a comfier ride than some of the competition. This isn't a full-size airframe as yet. Blackbird weighs 750 lb (340 kg) and has no seats in it. The production machine, currently known as "CruiseUp," is slated to launch as a two-seater with a 62-mile (100-km) range and a top speed around 93 mph (150 km/h). It's intended to be a personal buy 'n' fly aircraft rather than a fully certified commercial air taxi. Cyclotech has also been working on some wonderfully weird cargo carrying versions with Yamato. Cyclotech says it'll now begin an extensive flight test campaign to "fully explore the inherent potential" of the Cyclorotor propulsion system.    The Voith-Schneider propellers certainly give this thing a unique look. They aren't in a rush to get to production and scheduled for sometime around 2035. The business model appears to be more centered around proving and demonstrating the propulsion system, and making it available for other applications. 

While the path to profitability for CycloTech remains uncertain, the CruiseUp concept holds potential in smaller drones, where precision positioning and multi-directional agility could be invaluable for tasks such as asset inspection. The aircraft’s innovative mechanics and visually striking design make it a captivating addition to the evolving landscape of personal air transportation.