• 20 Apr 2023 10:37 AM
• 0

AutoFlight Completes Long-Distance Flight

AutoFlight announced that it completed a long-distance flight with its Prosperity I eVTOL aircraft. The flight took place on Feb. 23 at the company’s testing facility in China and covered 155.74 miles (250.64 km). In a video of the flight posted to YouTube on March 2, AutoFlight said that the flight represents an unofficial world record for the farthest an eVTOL aircraft as flown to date, being about a mile (1.8-km) — 0.7% farther than the 154.6-mile (248.8-km) test flight by the Joby S4 Generation 2.0 in July 2021. AutoFlight is developing the Prosperity I at its headquarters in Shanghai, has its European base of operations in Augsburg, Germany, and its US operations and test center in Napa County, California. The company aims for airworthiness certification with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in 2025.

Meanwhile, EvFly announced on March 17 that it has signed a deal with AutoFlight for 205 Prosperity I eVTOL aircraft. Deliveries are expected to be completed in 2025, with the first 10 aircraft planned for use in the Middle East, namely the UAE and Saudi Arabia. EvFly, a fleet management and operations company based in Singapore, also signed a letter of intent with Ascendence for its ATEA eVTOL aircraft last year.