The Sky Hopper team has, as previously stated, been very quiet in its communications about its activity. To a great extent, this has been deliberate to retain confidentiality about our progress. Like every business, we are having to struggle with difficulties in supply chains, especially in electronic components.
However, we can reveal that as of mid-June we are finishing off our Operational Safety Case submission to be allowed to test fly our platform.
We are presently engaged in testing our flight control firmware in powered ground tests and on scale model versions of the Sky Hopper platform. Inevitably, these tests involve multiple small steps that take time; but things are going well. We believe that our design will offer excellent controllability in hover and look forward to testing its cruise capabilities when we obtain the freedom to fly.
Our team has expanded, new skills are involved, and we are gaining experience in design, fabrication and now (early) operations. As one of our founders said, “this is a project that involves innovation at every step”.
We are presently targeting tests of model no: ACD165-004, with ACD165-005 on the stocks as an upgrade feeder platform; that is, once we take-off, we can accelerate development rapidly across our development programme.
We hope to reveal all within the next few months.