Watch Video: Skyfly Axe SN001 Awarded Experimental Permit by FAA “to Start piloted flights in U.S”

UK-based Skyfly announced this week that its pro­to­type Axe (ser­i­al num­ber 001), a Ver­ti­cal Capa­ble Air­craft (VCA), has been award­ed a per­mit by the FAA to start pilot­ed flights in Amer­i­ca, reports a press release.

After the aircraft’s suc­cess­ful debut at the Oshkosh, Wis­con­sin Exper­i­men­tal Air­craft Association’s ‘Air­Ven­ture’ Show in July, the flight test pro­gram will take place in the U.S.

The company’s web­site states, “The Axe, a ground­break­ing two-seat VCA air­craft, com­bines lux­u­ry design with sim­plic­i­ty, offer­ing intu­itive con­trols that make fly­ing as easy as dri­ving, a ful­ly elec­tric range of 100 miles (300 miles with a hybrid option), and a price point that makes per­son­al avi­a­tion acces­si­ble to more peo­ple.”

It con­tin­ues, “Built with safe­ty at its core, the Axe fea­tures mul­ti­ple redun­dan­cies and a glide capa­bil­i­ty to ensure a secure and reli­able flight expe­ri­ence.”

Michael Thomp­son, CEO of Skyfly, com­ment­ed, “Receiv­ing FAA Exper­i­men­tal autho­ri­sa­tion is a major mile­stone for us. It allows us to move for­ward with pilot­ed flight test­ing in Amer­i­ca under the world’s most respect­ed avi­a­tion reg­u­la­tor, while posi­tion­ing the Axe at the heart of the U.S mar­ket – the largest and most dynam­ic gen­er­al avi­a­tion com­mu­ni­ty in the world.”

He con­tin­ued, “The Axe now begins the next phase of its jour­ney from pro­to­type to pro­duc­tion air­craft, as we con­tin­ue to demon­strate that a safe, effi­cient and tru­ly prac­ti­cal per­son­al elec­tric ver­ti­cal take-off and land­ing air­craft is already here.”

Please Watch Video

The air­craft will also act as a cus­tomer demon­stra­tor in Amer­i­ca, a mar­ket which is expect­ed to become the largest for pri­vate VCAs and eVTOLs.

The FAA has already recog­nised the impor­tance of pri­vate eVTOL and VCAs to the Gen­er­al Avi­a­tion mar­ket, by updat­ing the MOSAIC rules in July, enabling such air­craft to be cer­ti­fied as a Light Sport Air­craft.

This sim­pli­fies the cer­ti­fi­ca­tion process and allows the Axe to be flown by those hold­ing a Sports Pilot Cer­tifi­cate, in addi­tion to a full pilot licence. The new rules will also allow the Axe to be used for cer­tain com­mer­cial pur­pos­es.

Cus­tomers that have already ordered the air­craft will be invit­ed to demon­stra­tions at select loca­tions across the US.

Michael Thomp­son

The Axe is avail­able to pre-order via the web­site:-

www.skyfly.aero/order

For more infor­ma­tion

www.skyfly.aero

(Top image: Skyfly Axe)

For the lat­est news, insights and con­tent regard­ing the glob­al Advanced Air Mobil­i­ty mar­ket, please join the fol­low­ing eVTOL Insights chan­nels: What­sApp, Face­book, Insta­gram, Spo­ti­fy, Apple Pod­casts, YouTube, X and LinkedIn.