GOLETA — LaunchPoint Electric Propulsion Solutions, Inc. is pleased to announce its return to the Vertical Flight Society’s (VFS) 78th Annual Forum and Technology Display, being held in Fort Worth, Texas, USA from May 10 to 12, 2022. The LaunchPoint Team is co-presenting two technical papers in the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) Technical Session I on Tuesday morning, May 10. Michael Ricci, LaunchPoint’s Chief Technology Officer and co-founder is also co-instructing the VFS’s signature Short Course on Electric VTOL Technology.
LaunchPoint has partnered with one of its customers to explore hybrid-electric propulsion as a promising technology to achieve excellent overall vehicle performance. In “Power System Characterization and Flight Testing of a >55 lb. Hybrid-Electric Multirotor”, details of the LaunchPoint hybrid-electric power system are presented in addition to results of flight tests showing aircraft endurance improvements with a hybrid system over a pure electric version of the same aircraft. The aircraft tested was the customer’s unmanned quadcopter equipped with LaunchPoint’s 5.5 kW HPS055 hybrid-electric power system.
LaunchPoint has also teamed up with Dr. Jayant Sirohi, a professor at the University of Texas Austin, and UT Austin graduate student, Matthew Asper, to propose a radical new concept for thrust control of a fixed-pitch rotor that may facilitate the use of electric power in vertical flight aircraft. As described in “Electromechanical Modeling and Testing of a Phase-Controlled Stacked Rotor,” the concept involves using phase-controlled (or position controlled) rotors stacked on top of each other and changing the index angle of the rotor system in flight.
Michael Ricci, a member of the VFS’s eVTOL committee since its founding in 2019, will be discussing advanced high-power hybrid-electric hardware in the upcoming VFS’ annual Short Course on Electric VTOL Technology on Monday, May 9, 2022. The course provides an overview of the unique challenges and opportunities of this new class of vehicles. Both electric and hybrid-electric aircraft will be covered for a variety of missions ranging from personal/private use to urban air taxis and regional electric VTOL bizjets.
“LaunchPoint EPS is on the forefront of innovation for electric flight,” says Mike Hirschberg, VFS’s Executive Director. “We have been so pleased to work with Michael Ricci and LaunchPoint for several years to advance the state of the art—and the state of understanding—of electric and hybrid-electric power and propulsion.”
To view the full schedule of events for the Vertical Flight Society’s 78th Annual Forum, visit
LaunchPoint EPS is located at 5735 Hollister Ave., Suite B, in Goleta. For more information,
call 805-683-9659 x 222 or visit https://www.LaunchPointEPS.com