AutoFlight has achieved the world’s longest eVTOL flight during testing.
The 155 mile (250km) unmanned flight took place last week at AutoFlight’s eVTOL testing facility on a single charge of the aircraft’s lithium-ion batteries. It consisted of 20 circuits of a predefined flight track, with the plane remotely piloted from the ground.
As well as its own avionics, Autoflight’s fourth-generation aircraft used third-party avionics to record and verify the distance flown on the ForeFlight system.
The flight is recognized as the longest fully electric aircraft flight in history, where the aircraft both takes off and lands vertically. The previous longest flight for an eVTOL aircraft was 248km set by Joby Aviation in 2021
Prosperity I is a four-seat eVTOL that is being developed in China, Germany and the USA. The aircraft made its first flight in October 2021.
The company heralded the test flight as a key milestone in the development of the Prosperity I aircraft,
Autoflight is working toward certificating Prosperity I with EASA in 2025.
President of AutoFlight Omer Bar-Yohay said, “This flight is a testament to the team’s incredible effort and progress in testing and incrementally pushing the aircraft’s performance envelope. We are excited to continue working towards our next goals all the way to EASA certification in 2025.”
Autoflight was founded in 2017 by its CEO Tian Yu. The company is also developing a range of unmanned cargo-carrying drones. The company, which initially attempted to develop a five-passenger eVTOL aircraft called the V600, relaunched its testing and certification operations in Germany with an eVTOL aircraft called Prosperity I in January this year.
