Samson Sky, producers of the Switchblade Flying Car, just completed five years of research and rigorous testing, which has validated the environmentally friendly thermoplastic carbon composite materials and manufacturing techniques they will be using in production of the Switchblade Flying Car.
According to company officials, thermoplastic carbon composites are recyclable and non-toxic, and have a low impact on the environment overall, as opposed to epoxy carbon fibre, which creates waste in the manufacturing process and is difficult to recycle.
With thermoplastic carbon fibre, any trimming or waste is recycled immediately into non-structural parts to effectively eliminate waste in the manufacturing process.
Sam Bousfield, Samson Sky CEO and designer of the Switchblade said: “Composites, which are light weight and extremely strong, have been widely used for decades in high-performance vehicles, such as race cars.
“Large manufacturers such as Boeing and Airbus have been using thermoplastic composites in their aircraft for over eight years.
“Over the past five years of our research and testing, we found an advanced carbon composites material that could be used for the primary structures of the Switchblade.”
Bousfield added that the composites team thoroughly tested the materials numerous ways, and at different temperatures, and is confident in using the material for the all-composite Switchblade vehicle.
Steve McGinnis, Samson Sky composites consultant said: “This will allow Samson to make the parts eight times faster and at half the cost of anyone else.”
Per the Samson Sky website, McGinnis has more than 35 years in composite aircraft manufacturing, having worked in leadership roles at Virgin Galactic, Mooney Aircraft, ICON Aircraft, the Amazon Drone Project, among others.
He has been instrumental in over 20 aircraft designs, in addition to several more defence-related projects.
He has received or has pending eight patents related to composite airframe manufacturing and specializes in bringing new aircraft to market, utilizing cutting-edge composite manufacturing processes to simplify assembly and drive down costs.
Company officials stated that due to these advances in automated parts manufacturing of thermoplastic carbon fibre, the production of Switchblades will be greatly streamlined, reducing both production costs and time considerably.
“Using this automated manufacturing system gives us a large advantage in scaling our production,” said Bousfield.
“The volume of orders we already have easily justifies the expense of the more costly machines and moulds for the system.
“With more than 2,700 Reservations and growing daily, Samson is raising the bar for production of carbon fibre vehicles and doing our part to take care of the planet that we all live on.”
