FutureFlight
U.S. Air Force Evaluating Pivotal’s Blackfly Ultralight eVTOL Aircraft
The $190,000 personal eVTOL aircraft has garnered attention from the U.S. Air Force's Afwerx innovation unit.
A Helix aircraft is loaded into a trailer for transport
Designed for recreational flying, Pivotal's Helix personal eVTOL aircraft—formerly known as the Blackfly—is small and portable. (Photo: Pivotal)

Shortly after Pivotal officially launched sales of its single-seat personal aerial vehicle—a recreational eVTOL aircraft that requires no license to fly—the company’s “tilt-aircraft” architecture has garnered some attention from the U.S. Air Force. 

Pivotal (formerly known as Opener Aero) announced on February 21 that it had delivered the first four of eight Blackfly aircraft—the pre-production version of its flagship Helix vehicle—to Modern Technology Solutions (MTSI), an engineering firm contracted by the U.S. Air Force’s Afwerx innovation unit to assess the tilt-aircraft’s performance for potential defense applications. 

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