Carter Aviation Technologies, which has been working for years to develop the technology in its rotorcraft, announced this week the company is now moving out of the flight-test phase and will focus on moving the CarterCopter into production. “The time has come, and some would say overdue, to shift gears and focus on getting the technology into the marketplace,” said CEO Jay Carter, in a news release. The company will continue to fly its technology demonstrator at public airshows. Executive Vice President Jon Tatro, who has been with the company since 2013, will be in charge of the production campaign. The aircraft utilizes slow-rotor technology that enables it to “take off like a helicopter, transition to an autogyro, and fly like a fixed-wing aircraft,” according to Carter.
Carter told AVweb last year he was working on a design for an unmanned aerial vehicle using the technology he’s developed. He also said he’d like to find an experimental kit manufacturer who would license his technology to create a personal-size aircraft. “The secret to our sauce,” he said, “is that we’ve found a way to eliminate the drag from the rotor blade. We can slow it down to 100 rpm, which reduces the drag by 27 times.” The company’s current prototype is a four-seat aircraft with a 45-foot-diameter rotor and wingspan, with a 350-hp turbocharged Lycoming IO-540 engine. The aircraft is capable of speeds above 200 mph, the company says.
