Eve Air Mobility, a subsidiary company of Embraer, carried out in Gavião Peixoto, in the interior of São Paulo, the first flight of the full-scale prototype of its electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. THE unmanned flight took place last Friday (19).
According to the company, the integration of essential aircraft systems, such as the fifth-generation fly-by-wire concept (computer flight control system) and rotors dedicated exclusively to vertical flight, were successfully tested.
During the flight, the aircraft performed the so-called hover flight, when the equipment remains motionless in the air over a fixed point on the ground, maintaining constant altitude and position, requiring precision control to balance lift and weight.
From now on, the Eve will gradually expand testing until the aircraft achieves fully wingborne flight during 2026..
“The prototype behaved exactly as predicted by our models. With this data, we will expand the aircraft’s envelope and move towards wing-supported transition flight in a disciplined manner, increasing to hundreds of flights throughout 2026 and building the knowledge necessary for type certification”, highlighted Eve’s Chief Technology Officer, Luiz Valentini.
According to the company’s Chief Product Officer, Jorge Bittercourt, the flight shows the aircraft’s reliability, efficiency and simplicity.
“We validated critical elements, from our sustainer rotor architecture to the aircraft’s flight mechanics, and now we move on to the flight testing phase with a focus on evolving the product’s maturity.”
Financing
The aircraft project is funded by the Financier of Studies and Projects (Finep), the federal government’s innovation promotion agency, within the scope of the so-called More Innovation Brazil – Sustainable Aviation, and has already received around R$37 million in economic subsidies.
According to the president of Finep, Luiz Antônio Elias, the project positions Brazil at the forefront of urban air mobility. “This inaugural flight materializes Brazil’s strategy of leading the global transition to sustainable aviation, with frontier technologies such as electric propulsion and artificial intelligence.”
