• 20 Dec 2020 06:14 PM
• 0

Half-Scale Samad e-Starling Takes Off

On Nov. 30, Bedfordshire, UK-based Samad Aerospace announced the successful electric conventional takeoff and landing (eCTOL) first flight of its half-scale e-Starling prototype. The aircraft flew at 90 mph (145 km/h) for five minutes, setting the groundwork for eVTOL tests flights in 2021. The e-Starling is an eVTOL business jet with a semi blended-wing-body (BWB) design with two embedded electric fans in the wings, two vectoring fans at the trailing edge and one on the tail. The half-scale eCTOL demonstrator, with a length of 22 ft (6.7 m) and a 26-ft (8-m) wingspan, used a trailing-edge coaxial propeller on each side of the fuselage.