Autonomous Flight was founded by British businessman Martin Warner with the objective of solving global transportation issues by designing and manufacturing non-polluting, electric VTOL aircraft. They are simple to manufacture and are extremely dependable aircrafts with characteristics that have the potential to radically change the travel paradigm. The whole concept of small group transportation in an electric Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) vehicle is around optimising speed and efficiency.

The Autonomous Flight Y6S Plus Six Seat Electric VTOL Aircraft is designed to transport six passengers from the disembarkation site to the next big airport as quickly as feasible while maintaining the luxuries they’ve come to expect on the private planes they’re about to onboard. For example, the Autonomous Flight Y6S Plus Six Seat Electric VTOL Aircraft can fly from London Heathrow to Battersea Heliport in just over 10 minutes, or from Lower Manhattan to JFK in little under 10. This is a new era of short-distance air travel, with the added benefit of not requiring a runway.

The Autonomous Flight Y6S eVTOL for now is a two-seat winged and tilt-propeller aircraft that was originally developed as an air taxi with future prospects of becoming a six-seater. Depending on the aircraft’s client,s however, the aircraft can be utilised for a variety of other tasks. The aircraft will be piloted at first, but after the technology has evolved and proven safe, Autonomous Flight plans to go fully autonomous.

Martin Warner and a small number of private investors contributed $1 million to the firm at the beginning of the project. With Autonomous Flight starting off with the two-seater Y6S eVTOL aircraft in 2019, by early 2021, the company had chosen to center all of its efforts on the Y6S Plus, a six-seater. Martin Warner, the company’s creator, said in January 2021 that he has opened a fresh financing round to generate an extra $25 million to support ambitions for a full-scale prototype to fly by 2023. He predicts that the firm will be ready to start commercial operations in 8 to 10 years.

Features

The aircraft is elegantly outfitted and constructed from carbon fibre composite materials. So far, a mass of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft have been one- or two-person vehicles. This is where the Y6S is a one of a kind aircraft. The cabin has the capacity to seat up to six passengers, thus designed to have a lot of room. The twin rotors, two on the canard and one on the tail, are arranged in a “Y” arrangement to decrease complications. Each end of the forward canard wing supports two ducted tilt-props, each with two propellers. The aircraft’s rear wing is high, and behind it are two parallel stationary propellers that are ducted and solely utilized for vertical flight. The rotors seem to be able to move in order to switch between vertical and horizontal propulsion as required. Increased lift is provided by the single rotor at the rear, and the aircraft has wings that give lift during forward flight.

The Y6S is a purely electric aircraft supported by lithium-ion batteries, with minimal environmental impact owing to its entirely electric, no emissions and flying systems. While the Y6S aircraft looks to feature retracting landing gear in simulated videos from the business, the full-scale prototype in photos appears to have immovable landing gear. The full-scale prototype includes two extra legs, one towards the end of each of the forward canard wings, and tricycle-style fixed-landing legs. The aircraft also includes safety measures such as Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), which ensures passenger and cargo safety through redundancy. DEP refers to an aircraft’s numerous propellers and motors, such that in case of an emergency, if one or more motors or propellers fail, the remaining functional motors and propellers can safely land the plane.

The aircraft has a top speed of 125 miles per hour (201 kilometres per hour), a range of 80 miles (130 kilometres), and a cruising altitude of 1,500 feet (450 m). The projected cruising speed in 2019 however, was 70 mph (113 km/h) which means that the model might be seeing further improvements before its final release. It is also equipped with a ballistic parachute as an added safety measure.

Since 2019, Autonomous Flight has altered its business strategy, with intentions to build a bigger eVTOL aircraft to offer organized shuttle services. It took time for a redesign to enable for a bigger passenger compartment during the Covid-stricken year of 2020.