Former F1 technical director launches cargo eVTOL programme

MGI Engineering, founded by Mike Gascoyne, who set up the Lotus Formula One (F1) team, has launched its cargo UAV technology demonstrator programme.

Announced at eVTOL Insights’ 2023, MGI promises to bring a “fresh viewpoint” on how to develop novel aerospace vehicles by applying F1 development philosophies to the cargo eVTOL UAV market. The firm has been developing cargo eVTOL technologies for the past year, with the aim of providing these services to the wider industry. Development has culminated in its Mosquito autonomous technology demonstrators for cargo applications.

Gascoyne, CEO, MGI, said: “We are really proud to announce our cargo eVTOL technology demonstrator programme at this year’s eVTOL Insights’ Conference. We believe that developing sustainable electric aviation vehicles combined with our unique expertise and experience from Formula 1 of lightweight hybrid composite vehicles is the future of the transport industry and will ease the strain on current methods whilst decarbonising multiple sectors. We are very happy to have a fully working demonstrator vehicle that has passed all our tests to date including fully transitioning from vertical to horizontal flight.”

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 45 degrees in the forward direction to, 45 degrees rearward. The second features eight rotors with direct drive motors distributed across four wings and all four wings use MGI’s proprietary tilt mechanism that is used to control pitch and roll. This variant is able to take-off vertically and fully transition to winged flight for long distance missions.

Gascoyne added: “We’re excited to see where our development journey takes us and look forward to solving the unique and novel challenges the industry presents us with. We also want to invite clients, partners and investors to join our vision to develop highly efficient cargo UAV solutions. MGI Engineering, as a cargo eVTOL consultancy service, understands in order to bring aerial vehicles successfully to market requires a multi-disciplinary team across multiple industries.”