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Tuesday, September 6, 2022 • Redmond, Oregon • $1
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It’s a car!
It’s a plane!
It’s ... both?
Redmond inventor ready
for vehicle’s first flight
BY TIM TRAINOR • Redmond Spokesman
S
am Bousfield has spent hundreds of hours in
a simulator, driving and flying his invention.
He’s driven down virtual highways, flown over
virtual mountains and landed on a virtual football
field.
Later this month, the virtual
will become reality.
“At some point you just have
to get in the air and see how
this thing flies,” he said. “That’s
where we’re at right now.”
The Samson Switchblade,
what Bousfield hopes is the
world’s first commercially via-
ble flying car, is set to take to the
sky for the first time. Whether
that happens in Central Oregon
or not remains to be seen, as test
flights often happen closer to
Photo courtesy Samson Sky
The flight test crew goes into action on the Switchblade flying car.
LOCAL NEWS
Photo courtesy Ross Chandler
Sam Bousfield, designer with the Switchblade Flying Car.
sea level. A professional test pi-
lot will have first-flight honors,
though the Redmond inventor
hopes to take the controls as
soon as safely possible.
Liftoff, should it occur safely,
will mark a momentous change
for his company.
“The moment will be ... hard
to describe,” said Bousfield. “I
don’t even know what it’ll feel
like.”
Samson Sky crews have spent
years working to design and
manufacture a prototype, tin-
kering with it at every step of
the process and rethinking ev-
erything from what kind of en-
gine to use to the location of the
smallest bolt.
But once the plane goes up
and they clear the last few bars
from the Federal Aviation Ad-
ministration, all that tinkering
must end.
“We have to put our game
faces on now,” said Bousfield.
“This is a real aircraft now. We
have to treat it differently.”
WHAT IS THIS MACHINE?
Bousfield can picture it.
A customer purchases their
Quick attack keeps brush fire at 10 acres. A3
Photo courtesy Samson Sky
The Switchblade goes through high speed tests in the High Desert.
ers will flock to it once they see
how much shorter travel time
can be in the Switchblade. There
are more than 5,000 public-use
airports in the country, he
noted, which opens up a wide
range of travel options.
“We wanted to make some-
thing that people will buy,
something they will want to use
.. and is useful,” he said.
The Switchblade will need
an 1,100-foot runway to take
off and, thanks to its automo-
tive-style brakes, just 700 feet to
land and stop.
Many companies have built
vehicles that both fly and drive,
but Bousfield said none have
been practical or able to be
mass-produced and mass-mar-
keted. Many required multiple
people and hours to attach or
remove the wings, which made
everyday use impractical.
See Flying car / A6
Candidates set for November city elections
BY TIM TRAINOR
Redmond Spokesman
Wildland fire
$170,000 Samson Switchblade
and spends a little more than
a week working with Samson
Sky employees to build it. Once
they get it home, the customer
parks it in their garage, where it
fits neatly alongside their every-
day car.
The driver can then hop be-
hind the wheel, throw their bags
in the fronk (front trunk) and
drive the three-wheeled vehi-
cle on city streets and interstate
highways to the nearest airport.
On their way, they can stop at
a gas station for a cup of coffee
and top off the tank with pre-
mium unleaded. Once they ar-
rive at the airport, the customer
presses a button, releasesing
wings tucked below the passen-
ger compartment. They hit the
gas, the propeller fires up be-
hind them, and the Switchblade
tears down the tarmac at speeds
well past 100 mph. It then takes
flight, heading off in the direc-
tion of a lunch meeting or vaca-
tion spot.
A recent customer survey
indicated strong demand from
recreational pilots, though
Bousfield thinks business travel-
The field is set. Let the cam-
paigning begin.
After the filing deadline came
and went at 5 p.m. on August 31,
we now know the final list of candi-
dates for the November election in
Redmond.
Four men will vie for the top job
in city government, as George End-
icott is set to leave his mayorship at
the end of the year.
Endicott, who has served seven
two-year terms as mayor, did not
file for re-election and will step
down from his post at the end of
2022.
A four-way race to replace him
will be between Charles Webster
Baer, Ben Schimmoller and current
city councilors Ed Fitch and Jay
Patrick.
There are also five candidates vy-
ing for three at-large spots on city
council. Those seats have a four-
year term that starts Jan. 1.
Those candidates are: Branegan
J. Dixon, John Nielsen, Kathryn
Osborne, Bill Trumble and Cat
Zwicker.
Other issues are likely to appear
on city ballots including temporary
and permanent bans of psilocybin
manufacture and therapy. The exact
language of those questions is set to
be ironed out at a Sept. 6 city coun-
cil meeting.
City voters will also have a say in
Oregon’s three-way governor’s race,
on the newly-drawn Oregon House
and Senate districts that bisect the
city as well as the U.S. House race
pitting Terrebonne resident Jamie
Mcleod-Skinner against Republican
Lori Chavez-DeRemer.
█
Reporter:
ttrainor@redmondspokesman.com
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