Earlier this year, AIR Hub (Aerostructures Innovation Research Hub) at Swinburne University of Technology, Australia, purchased a distributed electric propulsion test system from Tyto Robotics, which they have dubbed the “Iron bird".

The system is composed of 5 units of the Flight Stand 50 Pro, the Flight Stand software, and a metal structure designed by AIR Hub.

Here's what Brandon Piening, Research Engineer at AIR Hub, had to say about their test setup:

"The out of the box capability coupled with the ease of use and powerful software features made the Tyto DEP system a no brainer when we were sourcing a system to test and validate powertrains and propellers for our project.

We certainly couldn’t have built this capability from the ground up with the same budget, let alone timeline.

We successfully picked up an error in previous calculations as well as a mismatch between supplier information and real world data. This was super valuable as we ended up having to source a new motor because the prop size we needed (as a minimum) burnt out the motor we had initially selected, so very glad this didn’t occur in flight!

The ability to quickly and easily test motor and propeller combinations as well as running virtual missions for full evtol concepts is a capability we can’t wait to utilise further."

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