You deploy the parachute. Yes, it comes with a whole-vehicle parachute which is probably a good idea given everything else about this.
I popped up to their website and got a bit more information. So… a couple of things:
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As noted, you have to build at least 51% of this yourself. So the kit costs 170,000-195,000 and then you can factor in your time, needed tools and supplies, a place to build this thing… It’s doable. I know quite a few people who built their own kit planes but it’s not something the average person is going to want to do. Hell, it’s not even something the average pilot is going to want to do. My reluctance to build a kit plane myself had a lot to do with why I wound up renting Cessnas and Pipers.
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This does not meet the limits for an ultralight aircraft so you will need some sort of training and licensing to fly this anywhere even in the US with its somewhat insane Part 103 (I include myself in that remark - I got my start in ultralights)
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This does not meet the limits for a Sport Pilot aircraft so you will need a full private pilot license. I’ll give 'em credit - they state that straight up on their website with no beating around the bush. You need a driver’s license for the road and private pilot’s license for the sky. Although there has been talk of increasing the weight limit for Sport, which would cover this thing, to the best of my knowledge that hasn’t happened yet and might never happen.
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The “good” news, if you can call it that, is that by building this at least 51% yourself you won’t need a multi-engine rating added to your private pilot license to fly this thing. The bad news is that because of the US regs around experimental homebuilt aircraft you can fly a multi-engine airplane you build yourself without needing a multi-engine rating. I’ll just point out that while hanging as many engines as you’d like off an ultralight is entirely allowable in the US multi-engine UL’s largely disappeared by the late 1990’s due to a lot of enthusiasts taking permanent dirt-naps. Just because you can doesn’t mean you should.
A couple other things regarding this thing:
The functional payload is about 575 pounds. That’s about the load capacity of a Cessna 150 (although the Switchblade is heavier overall). The C-150 is not exactly a popular aircraft because after you finish wedging two big, brawny, American men into it you have no payload capacity leftover for things like fuel. I flew the C-150 a lot back in the day but then I’m a small woman. You can put me and full fuel in the thing with payload capacity left over. You can put me, the average American adult male, and full fuel into one of those although the climb rate is going to sort of suck if the ambient temperature is above 40 degrees or your runway is more than a couple hundred feet above sea level. Limitations on carrying capacity is going to severely limit the appeal of this thing, and also the average driver is going to be clueless about things like weight and balance. Just as well you’ll need a pilot’s license to fly this thing.
They’re claiming an airborne cruising speed of 160 mph and a max of 200 mph. Although a lot of people fancy themselves formula one drivers going along at 200 mph is a bit different from normal highway speeds even if you define that as 100 mph. I’d been flying about 8 years when I first got my hands on a 200 mph airplane (Mooney) and I almost busted both Michigan City, Indiana and Midway Airport airspace in the same 15 minutes (which is why the owner was in the seat next to me making sure I didn’t get into too much trouble). It’s a lot harder to keep up with the aircraft and very easy to get lost at those speeds. Of course it all gets better with practice but there is a learning curve there that might surprise people.
They’re claiming an 1100 foot take off roll. OK. I can believe that is possible (actual practice is not always going to meet that standard, you might want to stick to 2000 foot runways or longer especially in warm weather or higher altitudes)
Landing distance 700 feet. OK, I can believe that is possible (actual practice is not always going to meet that standard, you might want to stick to 2000 foot runways or longer especially in warm weather or higher altitudes)
This is still giving me Small Cessna Vibes. By the way, you can get a C-150 in safe flying condition for $30,000 to $50,000 these days, if you were curious. Not very roadable but then there are also fewer moving parts of the aircraft which, to my mind, is a bonus because there’s less to go wrong. Sure, it doesn’t go as fast but, like I said, less to go wrong. Built before airframe parachutes were standard but they are available as a mod for the C-150 so if you’d like that security blanket you can have it, too.
Stall speed is 67 mph. Which is significantly higher than the C-150 but makes sense for the wingspan/weight of this thing. OK, that’s touching down at freeway speeds. Probably within the capacity of the average driver.
Fuel is 91 octane Premium autogas, apparently. 36 gallon tank. On the road it gets 33 mpg for an approximately 1100 mile range which is… well, that’s a nice range. My Toyota Echo only has about a 400 mile range under ideal conditions. So great, awesome road-range (just ignore minimal seating and almost no room for your gear). Airborne they’re claiming 9.5 gallons per hour for about a 3 hour range (assuming you’re adhering to recommended reserves), or about 500 miles at cruising speeds (you crank it up to 200 mph you won’t get 3 hours or 500 miles out of that amount of fuel).
For engine failure scenarios they’re claiming an 8:1 glide ratio. Um… maybe? Although with how low this sits to the ground I hate to try to land that in a field. I speak as someone who successfully landed a C-150 in a hayfield on one occasion. It wasn’t at all fun, really, and the way the C-150 sits up high on its gear with ample ground clearance was a significant factor in the success of that maneuver. With a 27 foot wingspan good luck landing that on the average road without hitting something alongside like telephone or light poles or on-coming traffic. For reference, interstate traffic lanes are 12 feet wide, this thing’s wingspan is more than twice that. Local roads typically have narrower lanes than that. You need 2.5 - 3 lane widths to land this thing without adding a road vehicle accident to your troubles. At least the C-150 wing sits high enough to clear road-side mailboxes even if it still has the problem of on-coming traffic and roadside poles.
Finally, there is a small market is re-selling homebuilt airplanes. Most of them are single-engine without a lot of complications so a private pilot license will allow to fly them. A new owner, however, will absolutely need a multi-engine add-on to their license. They just barely evade the high-performance requirement, at least with their base model.
All of that aside - this actually does look like it’s a viable thing, in that it has a certain level of performance on both road and in air and apparently they’ve made an actually flying protoype. The problem is cost.
I could buy TWO C-150’s AND a brand new Toyota for that price. Hell, I could buy a C-150, a new Toyota, and a one-bedroom condo in my area for that price. Or rent a hangar to keep that C-150 in. I could drive my Toyota to the airport to fly that C-150 and probably still have money left over. I could buy a four-seat Cessna or Piper with much better payload capacity for that price. Why would I buy this thing?
