Officials with Skyryse, the creator of SkyOS, a universal operating system for flight, report the recent completion of the world’s first fully automated hover at the swipe of a finger.
According to company officials, Skyryse One executed a stable, fully automated hover with just a swipe of the finger on Dec. 19, 2024. The accomplishment was then successfully validated numerous times, including with Skyryse CEO Dr. Mark Groden at the controls.
“Each time, the aircraft performed a textbook-perfect seamless and stable hover,” company officials said. “While not the first time Skyryse has achieved hover with the swipe of a finger — having accomplished it countless times in test aircraft — it is the first time it’s been achieved in a fully-conforming, triply-redundant production unit without any backup conventional controls in the cockpit.”
“Until today, every helicopter ever built has taken off using basically the same mechanical controls that Igor Sikorsky used in his first flight 85 years ago,” said Groden. “This latest accomplishment — following our successful achievement of the world’s first fully-automated autorotation, the world’s first aircraft flown with a single control stick, and the world’s first engine-start with the swipe of a finger — will allow any pilot, regardless of experience level, to achieve a perfect takeoff, every time, with just the swipe of a finger.”
Gorden’s mission is to standardize aircraft controls so that a pilot who trained in a Cessna 172, for instance, can easily fly a Piper or Cirrus.
“You should be able to fly any aircraft of any type with the same training — just like you can do with almost any car on the road today,” company officials say. “In order to do that, you need to make every aircraft as simple to operate as a car.”
