At the recent
eVTOL Insights’ London Conference, Mike Gascoyne — the founder and CEO of the specialist consultancy
MGI Engineering, which was formed in 2003 (he previously worked at McLaren, Tyrrell, Sauber, Renault, and Toyota before setting up the Lotus F1 Team through MGI in 2009) — launched the company’s cargo UAV technology demonstrator programme, placing the firm squarely in the newly-emerging cargo eVTOL industry.
MGI is applying Formula One ‘development philosophies and mindset’ to the cargo eVTOL UAV market, with lightweight composite structures and highly efficient fast-paced iterative design processes key elements of the company’s approach to tackling the challenges that the cargo eVTOL industry presents. The company says it aims to provide these consultancy services throughout the cargo eVTOL industry, using its decades of experience gained at the pinnacle of motorsport and F1 — experience reflected by its senior staff and its CEO, Mike Gascoyne.
MGI Engineering says it has been developing cargo eVTOL technologies for the past year, with the aim of providing these services to the wider industry. “This has culminated in our Mosquito autonomous technology demonstrators for cargo applications. Developing ultra-lightweight structural composite designs are a key factor in ensuring aerial vehicles can achieve their missions effectively and efficiently.”
MGI’s solution focuses on a configurable design with two variants of its demonstrator technology: the first is a tilt rotor configuration, with two rotors on each corner capable of tilting from 45deg in the forward direction to 45deg rearward; the second features eight rotors with direct drive motors distributed across four wings, with all four wings using MGI’s proprietary tilt mechanism to control pitch and roll (this variant can take-off vertically and fully transition to winged flight for long distance missions).
Mr Gascoyne said: “We are proud to announce our cargo eVTOL technology demonstrator. We believe that developing sustainable electric aviation vehicles, combined with our unique expertise and experience from Formula One of lightweight hybrid composite vehicles, is the future of the transport industry and will ease the strain on current methods while decarbonising multiple sectors. We have a fully working demonstrator vehicle that has passed all our tests to date, including fully transitioning from vertical to horizontal flight.
“We also want to invite clients, partners, and investors to join our vision to develop highly efficient cargo UAV solutions. As a cargo eVTOL consultancy service, MGI Engineering understands that to bring aerial vehicles successfully to market requires a multi-disciplinary team across multiple industries.”