The tech behind CycloTech’s BlackBird

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The tech behind CycloTech’s BlackBird

Austrian startup CycloTech has wrapped up the summer flight campaign of its BlackBird demonstrator, a 340 kg eVTOL that flies on six barrel-shaped CycloRotors.

This aircraft can slide sideways through the air without tilting at all, and it has just finished its summer flight campaign.

It’s called BlackBird, a demonstrator built by CycloTech from Linz in Austria, and it doesn’t fly on regular propellers.

It uses six CycloRotors, barrel-shaped rotors with blades running along their length.

As each barrel spins, the angle of its blades keeps changing, so the rotor can push thrust in any direction, a full 360 degrees.

Helicopters and drones have to tilt their whole body to move. BlackBird can move left or right, or brake in mid-air, while staying level.

In this campaign, it drifted sideways without banking, held its position while tilted, and hovered at pitch angles of up to 30 degrees.

The aircraft weighs 340 kilograms and is about 4.9 metres long, and its programme has now passed 400 tests, in temperatures from 0 to 35 degrees Celsius.

BlackBird first flew in March 2025. CycloTech’s goal is to certify CycloRotors as a main propulsion system around the mid-2030s, and eventually build a two-seat flying car.This aircraft can slide sideways through the air without tilting at all, and it has just finished its summer flight campaign.

It’s called BlackBird, a demonstrator built by CycloTech from Linz in Austria, and it doesn’t fly on regular propellers.

It uses six CycloRotors, barrel-shaped rotors with blades running along their length.

As each barrel spins, the angle of its blades keeps changing, so the rotor can push thrust in any direction, a full 360 degrees.

Helicopters and drones have to tilt their whole body to move. BlackBird can move left or right, or brake in mid-air, while staying level.

In this campaign, it drifted sideways without banking, held its position while tilted, and hovered at pitch angles of up to 30 degrees.

The aircraft weighs 340 kilograms and is about 4.9 metres long, and its programme has now passed 400 tests, in temperatures from 0 to 35 degrees Celsius.

BlackBird first flew in March 2025. CycloTech’s goal is to certify CycloRotors as a main propulsion system around the mid-2030s, and eventually build a two-seat flying car.

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