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Interview with Soma Varga |
Home > Designer Interviews > Soma Varga |
Editor Frank Scott (FS) from DesignPRWire has interviewed designer Soma Varga (SV) for A’ Design Award and Competition. You can access the full profile of Soma Varga by clicking here.
FS: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
SV: At Orca Aerospace each founding member has a different background in engineering sciences. We cover fields such as aerospace engineering, avionics, or vehicle engineering. The desire to create was always a strong motivating force for us, thus not only follow the technological trends but to create a forward-looking innovation.
FS: Can you tell us more about your company / design studio?
SV: Orca Aerospace was founded in 2020 in order to organizationally support the development of the Orca electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Our headquarter is based in the mediterranean city of Pécs in Hungary.
FS: What is "design" for you?
SV: Design is the combination of superior functionality and aesthetics.
FS: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
SV: We prefer designing aerial vehicles, let them be piloted or remotely piloted architectures. The essence of preliminary aircraft design is to combine different engineering solutions and available technologies into a complex system working together.
FS: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
SV: It is the British Supermarine Spitfire aircraft for subsonic flight and the F5E fighter aircraft for supersonic flight. The Spitfire was the first serial produced aircraft using elliptical wing layout to achieve the lowest possible induced drag during cruise flight, while the F5E was the first aircraft to use the so-called wasp-waist shape to reduce the drag increase while approaching transonic flight speeds.
FS: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
SV: For the Orca Aerospace, the Orca eVTOL is the first design. We work on this project for ourselves and not for external customer.
FS: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
SV: It is the carbon fibre composite because of it's high strength and low weight. Furthermore, it is possible to manufacture complex shapes with it that was not feasible with the duralumin.
FS: When do you feel the most creative?
SV: With the right project to work on the motivation is continuous.
FS: Which aspects of a design do you focus more during designing?
SV: The main focus is always on the highest achievable performance. To reach this, we have to merge aerodynamics, structural design and subsystem integration.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when you design?
SV: Excitement when envisioning the final prototype during its first flight.
FS: What kind of emotions do you feel when your designs are realized?
SV: We will be inexpressibly proud.
FS: What makes a design successful?
SV: For a new and novel aircraft it is finding the barrier between innovation and feasibility or manufacturability.
FS: When judging a design as good or bad, which aspects do you consider first?
SV: If it is clear that the design is feasible and the communicated performance measures are realizable.
FS: From your point of view, what are the responsibilities of a designer for society and environment?
SV: To provide solutions for problems affecting a wide range of the population.
FS: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
SV: The future of design is in rapid prototyping and using virtual reality or augmented reality already during the preliminary stage.
FS: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
SV: It was in Nov.2020 at the General Aviation Conference of the British Royal Aeronautical Society.
FS: Where do you live? Do you feel the cultural heritage of your country affects your designs? What are the pros and cons during designing as a result of living in your country?
SV: We live in Hungary. We are affected more of the international design trends in the aeronautical society. We strive to be an internationally know company in order to reach the broadest possible audience. In Hungary the development costs are significantly lower compared to USA or Germany, but of course since lower number of companies are working here in the aerospace sector, finding suppliers can be more challenging.
FS: Can you talk a little about your design process?
SV: First is always gathering engineering studies in the very specific topic we are working on. This is continued in the filtration of different concept and working towards a selected one that best suites the initially specified requirements for the aircraft and its mission. This selected base model is than worked out in detail and is iterated several times. The preliminary design concept is closed with going back and checking if all the requirements are fulfilled perfectly. The next steps can be subscale model manufacturing, simulation file build up, but is always having the concept virtually modelled.
FS: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
SV: There should never be an end to studying and broadening the knowledge of the filed they are working in.
FS: What skills are most important for a designer?
SV: professional knowledge, creativity, technical skills, perseverance, sense of beauty
FS: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
SV: Wide variety of aircraft design textbook, from the general rules to the very specific topics as well. We use the classical spreadsheet for calculation and CAD software for visualisation.
FS: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
SV: The conceptual phase of an aircraft design takes up to a few weeks if the background knowledge is already available. The next stage of conceptual design will be up to a few months while the detailed design is measured in years.
FS: What was your most important job experience?
SV: Flight testing of a light sport aircraft and following through the process of aircraft development from design to manufacturing.
FS: Who are some of your clients?
SV: Currently we work for ourselves.
FS: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
SV: Preliminary design of aircraft. We especially enjoy discovering new technical solutions and merging them in a functioning and well performing system.
FS: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
SV: With our team, we plan to make the Orca eVTOL a reality and build the fully functioning prototype. We plan to have the aircraft ready to enter into service by 2026.
FS: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
SV: We prefer working in a team.
FS: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
SV: Not yet.
FS: How can people contact you?
SV: soma.varga@orca-evtol.com or zsolt.koltai@orca-evtol.com
FS: Any other things you would like to cover that have not been covered in these questions?
SV: No additional information.
FS: Thank you for providing us with this opportunity to interview you.
A’ Design Award and Competitions grants rights to press members and bloggers to use parts of this interview. This interview is provided as it is; DesignPRWire and A' Design Award and Competitions cannot be held responsible for the answers given by participating designers.
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