Former Volocopter CTO Arnaud Coville joins Japan’s SkyDrive as Chief Development Officer
Japanese eVTOL aircraft manufacturer SkyDrive has appointed Volocopter’s former CTO Arnaud Coville as its new Chief Development Officer, who will lead the team developing the company’s SD-05 model.
SkyDrive CTO Nobuo Kishi will focus more on the type certification process and both will work closely together and aim for entering the aircraft into service in 2025. The SD-05’s design was unveiling back in September 2022 and the company reached a key milestone when the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau accepted its application for the aircraft’s type certification in October, 2021. SkyDrive intends to use the SD-05 as a commercial passenger aircraft in the Osaka Bay area, beginning in 2025.
Coville said: “I am proud to join SkyDrive as the company has big potential to play a leading role in the industry. I believe that my international expertise will contribute to growing its engineering team and accelerating the development of eVTOL aircraft. I look forward to working with all the SkyDrive teams to ensure that our first commercial model flying car, the SD-05, is a market success.”
Arnaud Coville holds a Ph.D. in automatic control and robotics, and has three decades of experience in the aircraft industry. At Airbus, he has been in various management positions responsible for the development of vehicles, systems and structures in programs of helicopters and large aircrafts.
At Volocopter, he has been responsible for organizing and growing the engineering organization and leading development projects as CTO. He will further accelerate the development of the SD-05 by leveraging his experiences in aircraft development at Airbus and leading eVTOL development at Volocopter.
Tomohiro Fukuzawa, CEO of SkyDrive Inc, said: “We are thrilled to have Arnaud Coville as our CDO. He has gained remarkable management skills over the course of his career at major enterprises as well as a startup. I firmly believe that his extensive experiences not only in conventional aircraft development but also in a new type of air mobility will be invaluable to us as we seek to take the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution from Japan.”
In Japan, a type certification is issued by the country’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Tourism (MLIT) in accordance with Japan’s Civil Aeronautics Law. This is to certify the design, structure, strength, and performance of a newly developed aircraft conform with necessary safety and environmental requirements for the given type of aircraft. Certification is granted only after the aircraft completes a battery of studies and tests, including strength and flight tests.