AutoFlight has completed its first successful flight in Japan, reaching a key milestone in the development of its electrical vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) technology.
The company’s two-tonne aircraft carried out the operation on November 29 in the Okayama Prefecture, and was performed in collaboration with Japanese non-profit organisation MASC, with full approval granted by the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB).
AutoFlight’s eVTOL unit comes equipped with a Lift and Cruise configuration, utilising an all-electric propulsion system on-board the aircraft.
Part of MASC’s Setouchi Community AAM Infrastructure 2028 Project (SCAI28); the company hopes that the potential introduction of eVTOL journeys will address challenges posed by the region’s aging coastal infrastructure, as well as its limited transportation options between the mainland and remote areas.
The demonstration marks another in a line of successful test flights so far in 2024, including cross-city and cross-sea flights in the Pearl River Delta (Shenzhen to Zhuhai), as well as a cross-Yangtze River flight near Nanjing. The company’s eVTOL unit also completed a 123km flight in Abu Dhabi in May, and set a world record for the world’s longest fully electric vertical take off and landing (eVTOL) flight in China this past February.
