Palo Alto–based company Pivotal took to the skies at the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club this Saturday to demo an unusual single-seater, ultralight aircraft, the BlackFly. On the ground and in flight, it looks like a mix of a drone, a kayak, an airplane, and a helicopter. In actuality, however, the BlackFly is an all-electric aircraft that uses eight small propellers and motors to lift off like a helicopter or take off down a runway like an airplane.
The BlackFly is Pivotal’s first aircraft and was under development for about nine years, initially in founder Marcus Leng’s backyard. The version at the Polo fields weighed in at 348 pounds, above the ultralight category’s weight limit of 254 pounds as it had added accessories like the ballistic parachute. Saturday’s flights were piloted by Pivotal customer and ex-paratrooper Tim Lum, who said he’d flown thousands of times in the BlackFly, using it to explore his home state of Washington and recharging the craft with his Cybertruck.
Lum stated that he had explored many ultralight aircraft but none performed as well as Pivotal’s. He admired the BlackFly’s versatility and how he could pack it up in a trailer and charge it off his truck…