Skyryse has finalized the design of the cockpit of its Skyryse One helicopter, which is a conversion of the turbine-powered Robinson R66 to fly-by-wire flight controls managed by a single control stick and touchscreen displays. The flight control system is Skyryse’s own design and uses its SkyOS “universal operating system for flight.”

Two designers, both with experience in automotive interior design, brought the production cockpit design to life, according to Skyryse: George Evans, lead human factors engineer, and Pete Blades, v-p of design. Blades worked for Tesla for 10 years, designing interiors for the Model 3, Model Y, Semi concept, and Roadster, and before that worked on human-machine and user interface design for Nissan’s Infiniti brand after working for SpaceX on Crew Dragon interior concept designs.

“Starting our scalable interior design journey with Skyryse One was critical to our mission,” said Blades. “This new, updated, and upgraded pilot-centric design is flexible enough to give us the ability to implement SkyOS in any aircraft no matter the size, form factor, or use case.”

“Thanks to the full digitization of the control systems, SkyOS allows us to focus on ergonomics in a way that’s never been seen before in aircraft,” said Evans. “Rather than being limited by the constraints of the airframe, we were able to truly put the pilot at the center of our design process for Skyryse One.”

In the Skyryse-modified R66, a single flight control is positioned between the two front seats, and pilots can fly from either seat, although the cockpit is designed for right-seat pilots. There are no conventional helicopter controls; these are all removed as part of the conversion. Two main touchscreen displays are the entire avionics interface. The top display incorporates conventional primary flight display and synthetic vision imagery, and the lower large display provides flight and systems information. A backup display is installed on the left side of the bottom display.

According to Skyryse, “This new updated Skyryse One interior is designed to enable enhanced access to flight controls from both front seats, allowing us to more easily scale our design across any other aircraft or helicopter form factors. In addition, the placement of both screens is designed to facilitate a better ergonomic approach angle based on how pilots interact with both screens.”

Skyryse aims to receive supplemental type certification for the R66-based Skyryse One this year and is developing similar fly-by-wire and universal control designs for Black Hawk helicopters as well as fixed-wing aircraft. The R66 upgrade costs about $400,000 on top of the helicopter’s typical new price of $1.4 million.