Flown remotely — without a pilot on board — the Black Fly took off and landed from and on one spot at Springfield-Beckley, requiring no runway, lifting off and landing at oblique angles before leveling off, making almost no noise. Drivers of a few cars on West Blee Road beyond the airport’s fence slowed down or stopped to watch.
What can this thing do? A lot, according to MTSI and Pivotal researchers. The Black Fly weighs about 313 pounds and is available for $190,000 to $260,000, said Greg Lary, head of sales for Pivotal.
“We have roughly about 7,000 hours of flight time on the air frame,” Lary said. “We are selling the aircraft to the public. We’ve already delivered a handful of Black Flys, which are R and D (research and development)-derivative aircarft, but we’re also developing the next generation based on feedback the Air Force gave us early on.”
Josh Lane, a test director and operations site manager for MTSI, said his company is trying to understand what the craft might do, experimenting for the benefit of the military.
“We have a logistics use case,” Lane said. “So, short range ... it can carry up to 200 pounds. But there may be cases where we want to carry less than that. We can vary that as well. Does that give you (battery) extra range or endurance?”
“What if you needed to supply food, ammunition, medical supplies to someone out in the field that’s difficult to reach, a truck can’t get there for whatever reason,” he added. “This is accessible because it’s a vertical take-off and landing aircraft.”
MTSI isn’t the only EVTOL company at (or near) the National Advanced Air Mobility Center of Excellence at Springfield-Beckley. Joby Aviation has a presence here, as does BETA Techologies, another builder of electric aircraft.
At the Springfield airport, companies can fly these craft beyond a remote operator’s visual line of sight, noted Elaine Bryant, executive vice president of aerospace and defense for the Dayton Development Coalition.
“As the early adopters were coming on board, they realized they had to fly these things, and really, this beyond-visual-line-of-sight capability is unique and it allows us to use the several ranges we have in this area for folks to test,” she said.
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