Skyryse Inc., a Hawthorn, California-based startup building technology for semi-autonomous helicopters, said today it has raised a new $13 million round.

The round included previous investors along with Ford Motor Co. Chairman William Clay Ford Jr. Founded in 2016, Skyryse is developing technology that retrofits existing helicopters with technology that makes flying a helicopter easier for pilots.

The company describes itself as seeking to reimagine “urban transportation for the 21st century by making air travel a viable option for more people.” It differs from other companies that are attempting to build fully autonomous air taxis with technology that improves on what’s already available.

Aimed at making helicopters safer, quieter and more efficient, the company’s Flight Stack is designed to simplify flight controls, making the task of flying a helicopter simpler and hence safer. By doing so, the idea goes, helicopters using the technology would then become more viable for use in transportation services.

“Urban air mobility promises a new transportation future, but short-distance flying has traditionally been too expensive for mass adoption,” SkyRyse said in a media release. “Automating critical parts of flight will make flying more affordable; however, wide urban flight usage also requires a safety and communications network that works as reliably and safely as commercial airline flight today. The Skyryse Flight Stack is the first step in creating an entirely new urban aviation system that will allow for safe mass deployment.”

Along with simplified flight controls, the Skyryse Flight Stack also includes airline-grade fail-operation flight control automation, a supervisory system of sensors that are said to help steer, stabilize and direct the aircraft. That’s complemented by “envelope protection and emergency management” that constantly monitors a helicopter’s movement to ensure no actions are taken that exceed safety limits, especially in emergency situations.

Tackling what is a serious issue for mass adoption of vertical takeoff transport systems, the Flight Stack also includes support for Air Network Management that’s designed to operate at large scale, communicating flight paths and other pertinent information with existing U.S. Federal Aircraft Administration networks.

Using existing helicopters to bring to market air-taxi services is certainly different and arguably highly ambitious. But the company has a wealth of talent working on it. Employees include transport experts who formerly worked at Airbus SE, The Boeing Company, Ford Motors Co., JetBlue Airways Corp., Moog Inc., SpaceX Inc., Tesla Inc. and Uber Technologies Inc.

Including the new funding, Skyryse has raised $38 million to date.

Photo: Skyryse/YouTube