Skyworks Aeronautics

As the world leader in the science and technology of gyronautics, Skyworks Aeronautics is making air travel safer, more cost-efficient, and effective. Focusing on the design and development of high-performance gyroplanes, Skyworks has been developing manned and unmanned vertical-lift gyroplane technologies for more than two decades. Advanced sustained autorotative flight capabilities enable our aircraft to be both runway independent and economical and yet remain unconstrained by the physics-imposed limitations of a helicopter. After 25 years of research and development and more than 40 patents issued and more under application, Skyworks Aeronautics is poised to change the way that people and goods move about the globe. “We smartly enable the transition from conventional rotorcraft to safer, quieter, more cost-effective solutions via our VertiJet, Hawk 5, and GyroLiner platforms as well as support emission-free Electric Vertical Aircraft via our game changing eGyro,” says retired Air Force General John E. Michel, Executive Director of Skyworks Aeronautics.

The core of Skyworks’ technology is sustained autorotative flight. Autorotation is the ability of a free-spinning rotor to generate lift, allowing the aircraft to perform more effectively, efficiently, and safely in all domains of flight, including landing without power.

For a Gyroplane in forward flight, as shown in the diagram below, the unpowered rotor creates lift through autorotation, with forward thrust provided by an engine-driven propeller(s) or by jet engine(s), much like an airplane.

Some variants of Skyworks Aeronautics Gyroplanes have airplane wings to provide lift.

Interestingly, Skyworks has introduced an innovative new VertiJet, a runway independent business jet that will take off and land vertically like a helicopter. With VertiJet, everything from parking lots to yacht decks to backyards can be transformed into launch pads to get busy people moving smartly, safely, and conveniently.Leveraging technology from the Fairey Rotodyne and the DARPA Heliplane programs, VertiJet has an estimated top speed of 400 mph and a range of at least 1000 nm while elegantly blending the cabin configuration and comforts of a modern bizjet with the ability to operate from helipad-sized improved or unimproved surfaces.

All with the fundamentally safe flight of a gyroplane and the simplicity, stability, and low operating cost of a fixed-wing aircraft, resulting in both higher reliability rates and lower operating costs.

“A continuation of Skyworks’ highly touted DARPA Heliplane project, renamed the VertiJet, we are bringing truly transformative technology and entirely new capabilities to the civil bizjet market byemploying new approaches to noise reduction to enable vertical operations in noise-sensitive areas,” says Michel. When a runway is available, VertiJet can take off and land like a conventional aircraft. In the absence of a runway, VertiJet can take-off and land like a gyroplane – with an unpowered rotor, or like a helicopter – with a rotor powered by tipjets that operate for very short periods during vertical operations. In a nutshell, VertiJet’s versatility creates an unmatched range of operating conditions for private or commercial operators with an aircraft that can morph into multiple configurations and at a cost point that is a fraction of a similarly sized helicopters. “Faster, safer, and less expensive to operate than a helicopter – VertiJet could also prove to be a very compelling capability for the Department of Defense,” says Michel.

With an elaborate plan to launch a flying prototype of the VertiJet and finalize its design and build the first prototype of the eGyro, Skyworks’ roadmap alsoenvisages going public via SPAC merger or traditional IPO. “We are very excited to bring our cutting-edge, proven technology to market and look forward to playing a dominant role in transforming the urban air mobility ecosystem,” adds Michel.