After seven years of hard work Skyryse, the creator of universal operating system SkyOS, has completed its fully automated hover in a fully-conforming production aircraft.

In a feat akin to the first time a car autonomously pulled out of a parking spot, a fully-conforming production Skyryse One, a Robinson R66 helicopter modified with the SkyOS operating system, executed a stable, fully automated hover with just a simple swipe of the finger. The accomplishment was then successfully validated numerous times, including with Skyryse CEO Dr Mark Groden at the controls.

Each time, the aircraft performed a textbook-perfect seamless and stable hover. While not the first time Skyryse has achieved hover with the swipe of a finger, having accomplished it countless times in test aircraft, it is the first time it’s been achieved in a fully-conforming, triply-redundant production unit without any backup conventional controls in the cockpit.

“Until today, every helicopter ever built has taken off using basically the same mechanical controls that Igor Sikorsky used in his first flight 85 years ago,” says Groden. “This latest accomplishment, following our successful achievement of the world’s first fully-automated autorotation, the world’s first aircraft flown with a single control stick and the world’s first engine-start with the swipe of a finger, will allow any pilot, regardless of experience level, to achieve a perfect take off every time, with just the swipe of a finger.”