“AutoFlight Accomplishes First Flight in Japan”

Chi­na-based, Aut­oFlight, has achieved a sig­nif­i­cant mile­stone with its first suc­cess­ful flight in Japan, reports a press release. Last week, the company’s two-ton eVTOL air­craft named Pros­per­i­ty, com­plet­ed its inau­gur­al demon­stra­tion flight in Okaya­ma Pre­fec­ture.

The release explains, “The his­toric eVTOL flight was con­duct­ed in col­lab­o­ra­tion with MASC, a Japan­ese non-prof­it organ­i­sa­tion ded­i­cat­ed to aero­space indus­try advance­ment. With full approval from the Japan Civ­il Avi­a­tion Bureau (JCAB), this accom­plish­ment rep­re­sents a cru­cial step for­ward in MASC’s “Setouchi Com­mu­ni­ty AAM Infra­struc­ture 2028 Project” (SCAI28).”

The tri­al flight paves the way for future ones across mul­ti­ple Japan­ese cities, advanc­ing the path toward com­mer­cial Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty (AAM) oper­a­tions in Japan.

The Setouchi region, a coastal area along Japan’s Inland Sea, con­nects three of the country’s main islands: Hon­shu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. The region “cur­rent­ly faces sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges, includ­ing aging infra­struc­ture in coastal areas and lim­it­ed trans­porta­tion options between the main­land and remote islands,” con­tin­ues the release. “Through the SCAI28 project, MASC aims to address these chal­lenges by imple­ment­ing inno­v­a­tive air mobil­i­ty solu­tions while fos­ter­ing local indus­tri­al devel­op­ment.” 

Pros­per­i­ty is poised to serve mul­ti­ple roles in the Setouchi region, from car­go to future pas­sen­ger trans­port as well as med­ical assis­tance and tourism ser­vices.

The eVTOL has demon­strat­ed its tech­ni­cal prowess through sev­er­al mile­stone flights in 2024. In Feb­ru­ary and August, the com­pa­ny suc­cess­ful­ly com­plet­ed cross-city and cross-sea flights in the Pearl Riv­er Delta (Shen­zhen to Zhuhai) as well as a cross-Yangtze Riv­er flight in the Yangtze Riv­er Delta region near Nan­jing.

In May, Pros­per­i­ty achieved a sig­nif­i­cant 123-kilo­me­tre flight in Abu Dhabi, while only using half of its poten­tial bat­tery pow­er.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.autoflight.com/en

(Top image: Aut­oFlight Pros­per­i­ty)

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