We had the distinct pleasure to interview award winning designer Maform about their original and creative Passenger drone design work. Maform is an award-winning creative designer, that makes our world a better place with their original passenger drone works.
Maform ("Maform") answered Design Interview ("DI") questions about their award-winning work Flike Passenger drone. Interview questions prepared by Frank Scott.
Maform : Our goal was to give shape to an extreme sports vehicle that is a cross-breed of a speed bike and a helicopter. The vehicle itself is based on the fly-by-wire flight control system developed by ByeGravity.
Maform : The main goal was to achieve an extremely cool and futuristic look while taking into consideration all the technical and aerodynamic constraints. Our goal was to design something that is 'appalling' in a way – that takes courage to ride.
Maform : We are planning to use this as a demonstration of the technology. The vehicle itself is operational in test fields and simulations. Our client, ByeGravity is currently accepting pre-orders and support for building more prototypes.
Maform : The bodywork design took about 3 months. The graphical user interface design took about 8 weeks.
Maform : This design was done on commission. The Flike project was originally a passenger drone control system development project at BAY Research Institute in Miskolc, Hungary. A team later took on the project of realising an actual drone, using this system in particular. They started off with building an operational skeleton. We were inspired by their work and offered to design the bodywork.
Maform : Flike is still in development phase. They have an operational unmanned skeleton and a passenger test version. They plan to develop it and eventually introduce it to market in 3 years.
Maform : We were inspired by speed bikes, helicopters and sci-fi concept vehicles.
Maform : We used digital sketching, low-poly modelling and solid modelling in Autodesk Fusion to finish the final shell design for manufacturing.
Maform : It offers a possible solution for a totally new way of leisure and transportation. It's like riding a flying bike, or a horse. We faced lots if challenges in making this safe yet a bit insane.
Maform : We collaborated with airflow simulation engineers and aviation engineers.
Maform : The core technological improvement of Flike is the automated fly-by-wire control system. It allows the drone to translate the pilot's simple control instructions to complex flight control actions. For example: the driver can set flight altitude and tell the drone to turn, speed up or slow down. The control system then translates this to actual RPM drive information for each of the 6 rotors. But the pilot can also tell the drone to 'go home' and the Flike will fly to the departure place and land safely.
Maform : Our design was highly influenced by finite element airflow simulation data. The body generates uplift force while flying. This allows higher maximum speed and extended range.
Maform : We learnt a lot about aerodynamics, aviation and dashboards of flying vehicles. We also learnt some about regulations and standards for airplanes and helicopters.
