Improvements Stack as Brand Readies for Mass Production

Samson Sky updated followers on its flying car progress, describing some of the travails of the wind tunnel as they get closer to production.

Recent tweaks have largely revolved around realistic production alterations designed to bring the Switchblade to a more achievable production rate, with little nips and tucks to the design and materials involved. That final inch is always a rewarding one, since those finishing touches can go on to be darn near set in stone once the production line spins up to full output. In the update, Samson Sky Captain Sam Bousfield reported that their 3d-printed prototyping worked out perfectly.

"Our Team did an incredible job getting the work done on time for our weeklong scheduled slot in the Kirsten Wind Tunnel in Seattle, Washington," said Bousfield.

"We have been working on production engineering for the Switchblade and are tweaking the design to get the improvements needed for production vehicles. After First Flight of the prototype last November, we finalized a handful of important improvements to be made before we go into production. A key area to improve was our speed targets - and after much investigation found that we would not be able to do so with the single large ducted fan in the rear. We worked quickly to get an alternate method of propulsion, which we accomplished, and added in the rest of the improvements we had slated for production vehicles."

How did it turn out? Bousfield says it's looking slicker than ever. "These updates greatly reduced the drag and improved thrust efficiency to the point where we felt we had a design that we could take to the market. We are applying proven propulsor methods to solve the thrust/drag issues we found with our flying prototype."

Not everything can be shown off just yet, since the team is reportedly careful not to let anything slip if it could end up in a company patent.

FMI: www.samsonsky.com