SmartFlyer is exhibiting its four-seat aircraft during EBACE 2025.
GENEVA—SmartFlyer, a startup company based near Bern, Switzerland, is developing a hybrid-electric four-seater featuring a swappable range extender.
The SF1’s prototype is one of the rare aircraft on the exhibit floor here at EBACE, which this year lacks a static display. The prototype has yet to fly, and SmartFlyer is looking for investors to buy batteries and then proceed with testing, certification and production. A future 10-seat variant would add two motors and associated propellers at the wing tips.
The SF1’s design includes batteries in the wing and the nose section.
In that configuration, endurance stands at two hours, CEO Rolf Stuber said, speaking in a panel discussion at the show. When a range extender—a 60 kW Rotax 914i piston engine with associated electric generator—replaces the batteries in the nose, endurance increases to four hr., the equivalent of 800 km (432 nm). The swap will just need 15 min., Stuber said.
The tail-mounted propeller is the other design feature. It enables the air flow to accelerate freely, without being broken by the fuselage, Stuber said. Hence a calculated 20-25% improvement in efficiency. As an additional benefit, the location enables a larger-diameter propeller and therefore a slower rotation speed for the same thrust, therefore reducing noise.
SmartFlyer is targeting the SF1 at the pilot training market, notably thanks to an instrument panel comparable to that on a commercial aircraft, Stuber said.
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