Amjad Rehawi
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eVTOL · Autonomy · Power

Raven

A tilt-rotor eVTOL and the first airframe of a 4-drone autonomous swarm

Founder & Lead Engineer, stealth AI hardware startupFeb 2026 - presentStage 1 of 8: electronics integration
eVTOLtilt-rotorautonomycarbon fiberFEA/CFDswarmfirmware

Fixed-wing in cruise, three-motor VTOL in hover. Designed, analyzed, and printed in carbon-fiber composite, on an 8-stage roadmap that ends in a fully autonomous 4-drone swarm with wireless charging at home base.

  • 01Airframe structural build complete in PA612-CF15 carbon-fiber composite
  • 02Every part reverse-engineered and re-validated from the stock platform: new material, new constraints, new geometry
  • 03FEA on the main spar, motor mounts, and tail boom; CFD at 60 to 70 km/h cruise
  • 04Tensile and torsion coupon testing to characterize the printed composite
  • 05Designated senior design project and flagship hardware of a stealth AI startup
  • 06FAA Part 107 certification in progress
  1. CAD & analysis
  2. Airframe build
  3. Electronics integration
  4. First flight
  5. Autonomy

Raven is a tilt-rotor eVTOL: two wing-mounted motors drive fixed-wing cruise, and a third motor near the tail joins them for vertical takeoff, hover, and landing. The airfoil is an Eppler E205, CFD-optimized for cruise at 60 to 70 km/h. It is built on the geometry of the Flightory Stallion FPV platform, but every part has been reverse-engineered and re-specified: stock LW-PLA/PETG replaced with PA612-CF15 carbon-fiber composite, custom carbon-fiber spar and boom tubes, self-selected programmable servos and avionics, and CAD modified wherever stock parts would not survive Raven's flight envelope.

Configuration
Tilt-rotor; 2 motors in cruise, 3 in VTOL
Airfoil
Eppler E205, CFD-optimized for 60-70 km/h cruise
Primary structure
PA612-CF15 carbon-fiber composite, custom carbon-fiber tubes
Modularity
5-segment fuselage, detachable wing panels, interchangeable nose for payload swaps, V-tail
Analysis
SolidWorks Simulation + Ansys FEA; Ansys CFD; coupon tensile/torsion testing
Status
Stage 1 of 8: airframe complete, integrating electronics and flight code

Engineering scope

  • CAD: re-specified every part to the new material and load constraints; modified geometry where stock parts fail Raven's envelope.
  • FEA: static loading on the carbon-fiber main spar (bending), motor mounts (thrust and vibration), and tail boom mount (aerodynamic loads).
  • CFD: airfoil performance and full-airframe flow at cruise.
  • Materials: tensile and torsion testing on printed PA612-CF15 coupons; FDM/FFF print tuning with mandatory dry storage.
  • Kinematics: servo-to-pushrod control linkages and snap-fit wing locks with torsion springs.
  • Avionics: flight controller, ESCs, motors, receiver, and GPS selection; FAA Part 107-compliant wiring.

The 8-stage roadmap

  1. 01In progress

    Mechanical build + RC flight

    Airframe complete; integrating off-the-shelf flight controller, ESCs, motors, GPS. Manual RC control.

  2. 02Next

    Autonomous flight

    Programmable flight controller, GPS waypointing, basic mission planning.

  3. 03Future

    4-drone swarm

    Three more airframes; coordinated synchronized flight.

  4. 04Future

    Object detection

    Swarm flies pre-programmed patterns, detects trained objects, reports GPS coordinates to HQ.

  5. 05Future

    HQ-side AI

    Drones stream live video; HQ AI does analysis and mid-mission flight-plan updates.

  6. 06Future

    Onboard control AI

    AI moves onboard for adaptive control in harsh, uncertain conditions.

  7. 07Future

    Onboard sensor fusion

    Autonomous fixed-wing/VTOL transition, onboard detection, swarm and foreign-object collision avoidance.

  8. 08Future

    Full IoT + wireless charging

    Drones autonomously return to base, land in wireless charging stations, recharge. Zero human in the loop.

Startup context

Raven is the aircraft half of a two-product system at the stealth AI hardware startup I founded. The other half is an on-premise software brain that takes plain-language missions and coordinates a shared fleet, arbitrating multiple concurrent missions at once. The MVP is a live two-mission demo (a leak and an intrusion handled by one fleet), proven first in simulation and on commodity drones. An example end state: a fire department swarm that patrols a region on schedule, detects and classifies a hazardous fire, and dispatches verified information to first responders with no joystick involved.

1 / 2
2026-06

Airframe structural build complete

All PA612-CF15 segments printed and assembled: 5-part fuselage, detachable wings, V-tail. Moving to electronics integration and flight-code bring-up.

2026-04

FEA and CFD pass

Static FEA on the main spar, motor mounts, and tail boom mount; CFD validation of the E205 section and full airframe at cruise.

2026-03

Materials characterization

Tensile and torsion testing on printed PA612-CF15 coupons; dialed FDM settings and dry-storage workflow for the moisture-sensitive filament.

2026-02

Project start

Selected the Stallion geometry as the base platform and began the full reverse-engineering and re-specification pass in CAD.