SkyCruiser is Part Hybrid Helicopter, Part Personal Jet

Krossblade Aerospace Systems in Arizona envisions a hybrid 5-seat transformer aircraft which can also double as a road vehicle, coming with switchblade wings, six rotors and the ability to work as a VTOL aircraft.

When in road mode, the SkyCruiser looks like your average teardrop shaped concept vehicle with some extra fins and two tiny propellers at the back, leaving you wonder where’s the rest of the flying gear and how much time it will take you to mount the wings and everything.

But flick a couple switches and some lateral lids open to let out switchblade-like wings and four arms with rotors at each end. After everything gets in position, the SkyCruiser now resembles a huge drone with wings. And you know what? It shares another important thing with its smaller UAVs – electric propulsion.

Because those four rotors mounted at the end of some thing extending arms, a mechanical connection to power them would have been next to impossible. It’s a lot better to have wires running through the arms and power individual electric motors at the end.

Much like one of those little drones you can buy now and play with, the SkyCrane is powered by electricity coming out from a 12 kWh lithium-ion battery. The difference lies in the backup generator consisting of an efficient Wankel gasoline engine.

The aircraft will try to work in EV mode most of the time, while the engine will be ready to kick in at all times should it be needed, further cutting down running costs and making the SkyCruiser a viable solution for personal and business travel, delivery, air-taxi and emergency services.

Due to its dual nature, you can imagine the SkyCrane picking you up form home, drive to the nearest airport/air field, extend the wings/blades and take off. In fact it doesn’t even need a runway since it can take-off like a helicopter, but the law won’t probably let you take off from the middle of a busy intersection.

Once in the air, those rear mounted propellers will start accelerate the aircraft and after a certain speed is achieved, those vertical props will fold back into the fuselage, turning the SkyCrane into a normal plane able to cruise at over 300 mph (500 km/h).

This way, the aircraft can haul passengers within a distance of 1,000 miles (1,600 km) in 1 hour and 10 minutes. You won’t even have time to see a film traveling from LA to San Francisco, to put it that way.

The Arizona based company wants to bring the SkyCruiser on market by 2018, at an estimative price of $300,000 (€238,700) if the aircraft gets produced in large numbers.

Until then, a miniature unmanned drone will be available for customers, the first one being named the SkyProwler.

Source: Auto Evolution