Project notes
SCAR retrospective
SCAR — internally “Saber Crown AirBike” — was a self-funded prototype that explored single-rider manned flight on a large ducted-fan drone platform. It remained an experiment, never reached a safe or practical level, and is recorded here as a failed project.
What we attempted
The concept was a personal eVTOL: an eight-rotor, ducted-fan airframe sized to lift one rider in a tightly constrained setup, with a motorcycle-style seat and handlebars. Design work — done with an external aerospace partner for sizing and FEA — covered frame stability, propulsion sizing, duct selection, and control-response experiments.
- Eight MAD M30 (~100 kV) motors with MAD AMPX 200A ESCs.
- Eight FLUXER 40×13.1 in propellers (4 CW + 4 CCW).
- Welded aluminium 6061-T6 truss airframe; CNC-machined motor mounts.
- Carbon-fiber ducts and booms (Dragon Plate ~80 mm circular CF tube).
- Three duct concepts evaluated: Hex Duct, Bumper Frame, Circular Duct.
- ~1025 mm inner-diameter 3D-printed duct with honeycomb support + mesh, for thrust and pilot protection.
Preliminary analysis put bare-airframe drag at ~15.5 kg at 50 km/h, with ~3.7 mm carbon-fiber boom tip deflection under a 117 kg motor-mount load case (factor of safety 1.3). Carbon-fiber and metal parts were sourced through fabricators across Slovakia and the EU.
Outcome
The prototype did not achieve a reliable safety margin for human use. Technical and risk constraints outweighed progress and a paid funding line dried up, so development stopped before any meaningful operational milestone. The physical prototype was offered for sale to recoup some of the cost.
Why this page exists
These notes are a brief retrospective, not a launch announcement. They document lessons from a prototype path that did not work out.