Personal Air Vehicle Kit Ready for Order

Founded in 2007 to develop “unique solutions to air, land, sea, and space-based problems and challenges,” Torrance, California-based small defense aircraft contractor Advanced Tactics Inc. has teamed with Arizona’s Rotor X Aircraft Manufacturing Company to surreptitiously develop and demonstrate Dragon, the world’s first aircraft-factory-built Ultralight eVTOL Personal Air Vehicle (PAV) kit.

In 2014, Advanced Tactics Inc. demonstrated the Black Knight Transformer, a 4,400-pound air/ground mobile vehicle, the VTOL capabilities of which enable it to fly to and land in a safe area, then drive a distance to rescue a casualty before proceeding (or returning) to a safe departure point and flying to a field hospital. The Black Knight Transformer was the first multi-rotor RPM controlled to fly at a take-off weight of over two-tons.

In December 2021, with funding from the U.S. Air Force’s AFWERX program—a USAF initiative with the stated goal of developing solutions to the challenges facing the service through partnerships with private sector business entities and technology startups—Advanced Tactics Inc. began work on a low-cost, high-performance, multi-rotor, unmanned, VTOL-capable, cargo and rescue vehicle. The company sought to develop and fly a technology evaluation aircraft, the architecture of which supported either fuel-burning or electric propulsion systems.

Advanced Tactics Inc. realized in short order that the technology it was developing had commercial potential as a Part 103 Ultralight eVTOL Personal Air Vehicle (PAV). Such a machine, by dint of its low cost, simplicity, and high reliability, would ideally suit individuals seeking the rotorcraft experience without the prerequisite helicopter training.

To produce the aircraft—which would be sold as a kit and called Dragon—Advanced Tactics partnered with Rotor X Aircraft Manufacturing Company, a Chandler, Arizona-based concern possessed of expertise gleaned over a half-century of manufacturing two-seat kit helicopters. Rotor X, assumed control of the RotorWay International Helicopter Manufacturing Company’s factory when the latter went out of business in 2020.

The development and testing of the Dragon eVTOL PAV is funded solely by Advanced Tactics, which licenses production and public sales of the aircraft kits to Rotor X Aircraft Manufacturing Company.

The design of the Dragon eVTOL derives in part of the RotorWay Scorpion, a 1967-vintage, one-seat, contraption gone down in history as the world’s first kit-built helicopter.

Advanced Tactics Inc.’s multi-rotor technology renders the Dragon eVTOL sufficiently light to meet the FAA’s specifications for ultralight aircraft (empty weight under 254 pounds). Notwithstanding its light-weight, Dragon is capable of carrying a pilot standing six-foot-six-inches tall and weighing up to 250-pounds. Dragon’s single-charge endurance, which increases or decreases as a function of aircraft loading and atmospheric conditions, is approximately twenty-minutes.

Because its flight-control system evolved from technologies born of 15-years of unmanned, military, multi-rotor aircraft development, Dragon will offer pilots enhanced autonomous functions and safety features. The completed aircraft—in addition to a ballistic parachute and helicopter safety landing gear—will have the ability to hover on only one of its two motors.

The first production Dragon kits are slated to roll off the assembly line of a new Rotor X manufacturing facility in Chandler, Arizona in the third-quarter of 2023. Assembly of the Dragon kit is expected to take only one week, or two weekends, and require only a few hours of builder training. In addition to builder-assist and pilot-training facilities, Advanced Tactics Inc. and Rotor X plan to offer a two-seat iteration of Dragon.

Parties interested in learning more about the Dragon eVTOL PAV are invited to visit the Rotor X website. Each of the first one-hundred Dragon kits will be sold at the introductory price of $85,000. Thereafter, kits will be offered for the regular price of an estimated $99,000.

Customer deliveries of the first Dragon kits are expected to commence in September 2023.

FMI: www.rotorxdragon.com