"First Flight was achieved under cloudy skies but calm winds. The Samson Sky team, positioned along the runway, watched in anticipation as the Switchblade smoothly lifted off and flew to an altitude of 500 feet. Flying high above the expansive airport and surrounding foothills, the Switchblade remained airborne for nearly six minutes, then lightly touched down completing its maiden flight."
Developed by Redmond, Oregon-based Samson Sky, the Switchblade is a flying car 14-years in the making. On 15 July 2022, the FAA granted approval for flight-testing of the machine to commence, and Samson Sky got eagerly about the business of vetting its creation.
In its road-going iteration, the three-wheeled Switchblade invokes images of a radically-modernized Robin Reliant grown a longer snout and broader hips. The contraption features all-wheel disc brakes and an enclosed, climate-controlled cabin accommodating two occupants in a side-by-side seating configuration and fifty-pounds of baggage. The Switchblade’s 190-horsepower, liquid-cooled, three-cylinder powerplant drives a ducted, aft-mounted pusher-propeller situated forward of a stowable, dual-vertical stabilizer, T-tail empennage. The craft’s wings—which fold into its fuselage—span just under 27-feet and feature conventional ailerons and slotted flaps.
Airborne, Samson Sky claims Switchblade will cruise at 160-statute-miles-per-hour, reach a maximum speed of 190-miles-per-hour, and be operable to a 13,000-foot service-ceiling. By way of range, Samson Sky asserts Switchblade will manage five-hundred statute miles by air and 750 by road.
Earthbound, the Switchblade is, technically, a motorcycle. Operating the beastie will require a valid driver’s license with motorcycle endorsement, as well as a Private Pilot Certificate—though rumors have been whispered that the Switchblade may meet Light Sport Aircraft criteria and be piloted, therefore, by holders of Sport Pilot Certificates.
Samson Sky sets fort Switchblade can transition between its road and sky-going incarnations in as little as three-minutes.
Samson Sky CEO and Switchblade inventor Sam Bousfield asserts that, to date, more than 1,600 buyers have reserved production positions for his company’s $170,000 offering.
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