This Startup Wants To Make Flying A Helicopter Like Playing A Video Game

If you consume local news, you’ve probably seen the stories before. While commercial aviation remains one of the safest ways to travel, there are over a thousand general aviation accidents each year. Some of these accidents add to the few hundred general aviation fatalities each year. A common cause of fatal accidents in general aviation is visual flight into instrument conditions. Some pilots end up flying perfectly operable aircraft into terrain. California startup Skyryse wants to change that, starting with helicopters. Its Robinson R66-based Skyryse One deletes common helicopter controls for touchscreens, a joystick, and triple-redundant automation. The chopper can even land itself in an emergency.

Simplifying the flying experience has been all of the rage in aviation over recent years. Countless startup companies are trying to sell electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft of various sizes. Other companies are trying to build air taxis and automated flying machines. Many of these concepts and prototypes have a focus on simplifying the controls of an aircraft.

For example, earlier this year I wrote about the launch of the Pivotal Helix (above), an ultralight eVTOL that you can fly without a pilot license. The Helix uses a control stick and software to simplify the flying experience.

The idea of making aviation safer and easier isn’t a new concept. You may remember my story on the stylish Ercoupe, the plane sold by department stores in the 1940s. The aircraft was marketed as being as easy to fly as a car was to drive:

That aircraft featured control wheels that manipulated a linked system that moved the ailerons and the rudders. Turn the wheel left, and the aircraft turns its rudder left for a coordinated turn. Linking the rudders to the wheels eliminated the need for rudder pedals. The aircraft was further designed to prevent stalls, spins, and had brakes operated like a car’s brakes. An Ercoupe’s engine was also intentionally mounted slightly crooked to eliminate the turning tendency known as P-Factor.

So, trying to stop pilots from binning their aircraft is hardly a new thing. Nowadays, the tricks to keep an aircraft flying aren’t through mechanical linkages and crooked engines, but through software. Those little eVTOLs aren’t getting the only attention, either.

Since 2019, helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky has been experimenting with automation by replacing the manual collective, cyclic, and pedal controls with a tablet, software, and inceptors (sometimes called sidesticks and centersticks). Since 2023, Airbus has been experimenting with simplifying controls using software and a stick with its FlightLab helicopter.

However, the Sikorsky project is not a production helicopter and Airbus is using its helicopter as a testbed for technology destined for upcoming eVTOLs. I spoke with Jalopnik legend Ray Wert, the VP of Communications & Marketing at Skyryse.

Wert tells me the Skyryse One simplifies the flying experience, but it’s not just a testbed; you’ll likely be able to pilot a production Skyryse One next year. So, let’s see what you’ll be getting.

Helicopters Simplified

Wert tells me that there’s a wide gap in aviation right now. As of 2019 there were roughly 487,200 licensed general aviation pilots in the United States. That’s a lot of people who can fly a plane. How many people in America can fly a helicopter? Roughly 15,000 people. Skyryse believes that part of the reason is the complexity of a rotorcraft. While the most basic controls of something fixed-wing like a Cessna 172 involve rudder pedals, yokes, and a throttle, a rotorcraft has a collective, cyclic, and pedals.

The collective changes the pitch angle of the rotor blades while the cyclic controls the main rotor to control the directional movement of the helicopter. Meanwhile, the pedals manipulate the tail rotor’s thrust, achieving a somewhat similar result that a rudder pedal does on a fixed-wing aircraft. Of course, there’s also a throttle and other controls, but Skyryse believes that typical helicopter controls, which have been largely unchanged for several decades, don’t need to be a full-body experience.

Skyryse was founded by Mark Groden in Southern California in 2016 with the mission of reducing general aviation deaths as close to zero as possible. It has spent the time since brewing up its SkyOS system, software and controls that take as much of the hard work out of flying a helicopter as possible.

The Skyryse One starts as a Robinson R66, a single-engine light turbine helicopter known for its relative affordability. Yes, we’re talking about a chopper that still costs a million dollars, so we aren’t talking “affordable” in the traditional sense, here.

Anyway, for more than a decade, the R66 has been a hot seller in part because it is one of the cheapest ways into a new turbine helicopter. Buyers get a Rolls-Royce RR300 Turbine good for 300 shaft HP, derated to 270 SHP for takeoff and 224 SHP continuous power. It’s a helicopter that seats five and has a 917-pound payload with a full fuel load.

The Skyryse One looks like a regular R66 on the outside, but the cabin is totally different. Here’s a standard R66 panel with a Garmin G500H.

Now, take a look at the Skyryse One with its SkyOS system. The panel is reduced to two tablet screens. And the collective, cyclic, and pedals? Those are gone, replaced by a four-axis control stick.

One of the benefits touted by Skyryse is that its SkyOS system reduces the bulk of a panel. While this may not be such a big deal with the large greenhouse of a Robinson R66, Skyryse sees its technology trickling into other helicopters and even into fixed-wing aircraft. I sometimes need a booster cushion to see well over the panels of some Cessna 172s, so I like the idea of compact panels.

As of right now, Skyryse isn’t talking much about what you’ll find on those two screens, but it looks like you’re getting all of the vitals you would otherwise find on a standard panel. However, Wert did tell me that SkyOS and those touchscreens do simplify your experience. For example, you’ll be able to start the helicopter’s engine simply by swiping an icon on the screen. Engine shutdown works the same. In one of the promotional shots, you can see the iPhone-like engine shutdown slider.

The automation doesn’t end there. Wert tells me that you’ll be able to swipe to lift off or swipe to touch down. SkyOS can also cover hover functions and can land the helicopter in the event of an emergency. You’ll still have full control of the helicopter, but SkyOS will automatically put the chopper into autorotation and handle glide, flare, and set-down. You will just need to steer the helicopter to a safe place to land.

The automation brought on by SkyOS also means that you can let go of the controls and the computer will ensure the helicopter stays in a safe envelope.

Meanwhile, the four-axis stick simplifies the flight controls into something perhaps closer to the controls of a helicopter from a video game. Again, SkyOS is there to prevent you from putting the helicopter into danger and it’s there to make sure the helicopter always remains stable. The idea is that you’re in command, but the chopper will try its hardest to keep you from kissing terrain.

One big feature that Wert touted is the fact that the Skyryse One will be fully certified for Instrument Flight Rules, and the price of the Skyryse One will make it half of the price of a typical IFR-certified helicopter.

Wert compared SkyOS and the fly-by-wire stick to the systems and controls you’ll find in a fighter jet or on the flight deck of an Airbus airliner. Like a commercial airliner, the Skyryse One has backup and Skyryse says it has triple-redundant systems to ensure a safe flying experience.

Skyryse is quick to clarify that this is not a self-flying or autonomous helicopter, just one that should make flying much easier and thus open the skies for more helicopter pilots. Skyryse even put Ray Wert — someone who isn’t a helicopter pilot — up into one of its test helicopters to show how the system simplifies flying. As I noted before, putting SkyOS into a Robinson is just the start. Maybe one day we’ll see a Cessna with this technology.

Pilots of the Skyryse One will require a private pilot certificate. If you do not already have a helicopter rating, you’ll likely be able to get one with a Skyryse One. However, your rating will essentially restrict you to the Skyryse One, locking you out of any helicopter with conventional controls. That’s not a new thing. People who learned to fly in an Ercoupe received ratings that locked them out of planes with conventional rudder pedals.

If you’re excited, Skyryse is now taking $2,500 refundable reservations on its website. That locks you into an introductory price of $1.8 million. Yes, that is a ton of money and might be one of the most expensive things I’ve ever written about on this site. A regular Robinson R66 runs a touch over $1.1 million. However, Skyryse believes it’ll find buyers in people who want a safer helicopter and those who want a more cost-effective IFR helicopter.

If you put in a reservation, you’ll be able to fly in Skyryse’s simulator at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh this July. The company is expecting to take its first deposits around that time. Skyryse is expecting FAA certification sometime next year with deliveries starting soon after. I’ll definitely be watching to see where this goes and maybe trying this out for myself.

(Images: Skyryse, unless otherwise noted.)