The Chinese eVTOL startup Autoflight has entered into a contract with EVFLY for an initial 205 of its electric air taxis.
The deal sees EVFLY initially purchase Prosperity I and Prosperity Cargo Aircraft, with EVFLY operating the first 10 AutoFlight Cargo aircraft in the Middle East, in highly promising markets such as the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, with subsequent deployments in Asia and Africa.
The agreement demonstrates the company’s commitment to the Middle East region, which both parties believe could be a trailblazer for eVTOL services.
The partnership is underpinned by EVFLY’s comprehensive fleet management service which integrates the latest technology for eVTOL maintenance and operational efficiency. This will provide a unique solution for companies wishing to use eVTOL for commercial or private purposes.
AutoFlight’s president Omer Bay-Yohay commented: “This is a fantastic deal and illustrates just a few of the many geographies that will benefit from eVTOLs in both cargo and personal mobility. The team at EVFLY has a proven track record in successfully managing freight and cargo businesses and we’re delighted to be partnering with them in what could be one of the first commercial eVTOL operations in the world.”
EVFLY’s founder and CEO, Yannick Erbs said of the partnership; “AutoFlight has a proven aircraft, as demonstrated by their world record flight and thousands of additional flight test miles. They are a natural choice for EVFLY, as both parties will bring expertise to the nascent eVTOL cargo and passenger markets.”
The agreement follows quickly from Autoflight’s globally recognized achievement of the world’s longest eVTOL flight in history with distance of 250KM / 155 miles on a single charge of the aircraft’s lithium-ion batteries.
The flight, which took place at AutoFlight’s eVTOL testing facility on February 23th, consisted of 20 circuits on a predefined flight track, with the plane remotely piloted from the ground by AutoFlight’s Flight Test team. Interestingly, while AutoFlight’s Gen4 aircraft is fitted with the latest in state-of-the-art avionics, the aircraft also ran third-party avionics to record and verify the distance flown on ForeFlight, an independent system widely used in the aviation sector.
