Samson Sky reports that during the AirVenture Oshkosh show the company received 115 more orders for its Switchblade flying cars, valued at nearly USD22 million.
“This two-seat flying sports car is arguably the most sought-after flying car in history, with over 2,400 reservations from 57 countries, including all 50 US states,” says the company in a press release. “In addition to reservations, over 100 vehicles have been pre-purchased by those wanting to gain the earliest delivery positions.”
“It was great to be back at AirVenture to take advantage of all the industry experts and suppliers who attend the show,” said Sam Bousfield, designer of the Switchblade, and Founder and CEO of Samson Sky. “We were able to hold several key meetings with future partners and investors that made the show an even bigger success for us.”
The test flights so far have been held at the Moses Lake Airport in Central Washington, said the company. Powered by a 200 hp liquid cooled Samson 3 engine, the vehicle is being run through a rigorous flight test programme to validate flight capabilities and find and correct any deviations from the company’s goal of “high performance in both modes” as a car and an aircraft. Flight testing will continue for several months while the Samson Team learns from these flights and finalizes the production engineering that will allow Samson to start Switchblade production.
The team spent nearly four years developing carbon fiber production processes to enable the company to ramp up parts production quickly and at much less cost than the current state of the art.
“The Switchblade is a three wheel, street-legal vehicle that you keep parked in your garage. You drive it from your garage to a nearby airport,” writes the company. “Once there, the wings swing out and the tail extends in under three minutes. You fly your registered aircraft to the airport nearest your destination, at up to 160mph. Then you simply land, transform your flying sports car back to driving mode – the wings and tail safely stowed and protected – and drive to your final destination.”
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