AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021 - 33

FUTURE FLIGHT |

Pyka Pelican
Volts from the blue, and chemicals, too
BY THOMAS A. HORNE

THESE DAYS, eVTOL designs seem to get all the press.
But electrically powered, conventional-wing aircraft
designs are already in service today. Pipistrel's Alpha
Electro and Velis Electro-the latter having recently
earned its EASA (European Union Aviation Safety
Agency) certification-are two-seat trainers that readily come to mind. But there's another design already
on the job-working the fields, so to speak-in New
Zealand. It's the Pelican eSTOL cropduster, the product of Pyka Inc., an Oakland, California, company.
The New Zealand Pelican works for Pyka's launch
customer. It's operated by West Farms, a company
based in the Canterbury region of the South Island.
More Pelicans are being built in Oakland at a rate of
one per month. They're designed and manufactured
under ASTM guidelines for unmanned aircraft systems and built under an FAA exemption that addresses
large drones. Pyka is cagey about the Pelican's price.
Michael Norcia, Pyka's co-founder and CEO, said that
the Pelican program is currently operated under a
leasing model and as of November 3, 2020, he said he
wasn't able to discuss prices. Yet.
The Pelican uses three wing- and tail-mounted
20-kW (approximately 27-horsepower) motors, can
take off and land in just 150 feet, and is fully autonomous. It weighs 1,125 pounds, has a 38-foot wingspan,
can carry a 625-pound payload, and cruises at 78 knots;
airspeed for crop dusting is 70 knots. It achieves this
efficiency in large part because of its high aspect ratio
wings, which are equipped with full-span flaps. Its
flight computer, battery packs, and spray system are all

designed by Pyka. Geographic and obstacle databases,
along with precise tracking software, let the airplane
spray chemicals at low altitude and on specific ground
tracks, all the while adjusting for crosswind effects. At
a spray rate of five gallons an acre, the Pelican can cover
85 acres in an hour, including the time to fill its load and
swap out batteries. At two gallons an acre, it can cover
135 acres an hour. Battery endurance is 30 minutes.
The Pelican demonstrates the advantages of having
conventional fixed wings over multiple rotors providing vectored vertical thrust. Wings provide most of the
lift, which saves precious battery power. Wings also permit glides after a loss of power. In a larger sense, the
Pelican demonstrates an alternative path for electric aviation's future. By using electrical power in an eSTOL
application, bigger loads and longer endurances may be
possible using extremely short runways or other launch
areas, or even threatened or closed airports.
A natural progression suggests a passenger-carrying version of the Pelican. And there is such a design in
the works. However, to carry passengers a pilot would
be needed-at least initially, until regulations are modified to include autonomous passenger flights. And the
Pelican design would certainly need to be a bit larger
to accommodate passengers. That means a totally new
airframe, and still more certification hoops to jump
through. But for the near future, the Pelican is earning
its stripes, and operational experience-as a purposebuilt ag drone, and a very nice one at that.
EMAIL tom.horne@aopa.org

aopa.org/pilot AOPA PILOT | 33

http://www.aopa.org/pilot

AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - January 2021