After enduring a few frightening experiences while learning to fly helicopters, aerospace engineering PhD student, Haofeng Xu, was motivated to improve helicopter flight safety. In 2021, Xu founded Rotor Technologies, targeting the dangers prevalent in small private aircraft flights which lead to fatal accidents every year across the U.S.
Rotor Technologies aims to retrofit existing helicopters with a series of sensors and software, minimizing the role of pilots in risky flights, and making aviation more versatile in its applications. Xu emphasizes the role of automation and the company’s focus on autonomy as pivotal to their mission to enhance safety and accessibility in vertical flight.
Rotor’s autonomous helicopters can fly longer, carry heavier loads, and are faster than battery-driven drones. The company has started performing trial flights in Nashua, New Hampshire, with commercial sales planned to launch later in the year.
In the early phases of his business, Xu was greatly influenced by his time at MIT, stating that his experiences at the institution shaped his vision for the future of aviation. Xu’s first hire for Rotor was his PhD collaborator, Yiou He, and the company now has numerous MIT affiliates amongst its fifty-strong team.
Rotor partnered with the established Robinson Helicopter Company instead of creating an aircraft from scratch. They retrofit Robinson’s helicopters during the company’s standard overhaul process after 2000 hours of flight time. Rotor primarily introduces a “fly by wire” system, complete with computers and motors enhancing the flight control abilities of the helicopters and a set of advanced communication tools and sensors adapted from the autonomous vehicle industry.
Rotor also offers 24/7 flight monitoring through a cloud-based human supervision system that they have termed “Cloudpilot”. The majority of their initial flights take place in remote areas to minimize the risk of human injury.
Rotor’s vehicle, the R550X, can carry loads up to 1,212 pounds, travel at speeds exceeding 120 miles per hour, and can stay airborne for several hours with the help of auxiliary fuel tanks. As well as improving safety and extending flying times, Rotor also aims to enable entirely new types of operations.
The company aims to sell a few aircraft this year, with plans to increase production to 50 to 100 aircraft a year subsequently. Looking ahead, Xu hopes Rotor may eventually transport humans besides him, as he returns to the cockpit of a safer and more autonomous flying device. He looks forward to how Rotor could potentially impact our daily lives by enabling safer, more autonomous, and affordable vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
