WORLD’S LONGEST EVTOL FLIGHT

It’s fair to say that AutoFlight is one of the leading pioneers of eVTOL (electric Vertical Take Off and Landing).

The speed that the high-tech startup has developed its aircraft is astonishing, but not surprising, as founder and CEO, Tian, started his first electric radio controlled aircraft business in 1999, producing millions of electric airplanes over the years while obtaining more than 300 related patents. His current product is much bigger, coming in at 12.8 metres, with 10 lifting rotors, three propellers and a max range of 150 miles. However, the Frank Stephenson designed AutoFlight eVTOL recently achieved the world’s longest eVTOL flight in history with distance of 155 miles on a single charge of the aircraft’s lithium-ion batteries.

The flight, which took place at AutoFlight’s eVTOL testing facility, consisted of 20 circuits on a predefined flight track, with the plane remotely piloted from the ground by AutoFlight’s Flight Test team. AutoFlight’s president Omer Bar-Yohay commented, “This flight is both a great celebratory milestone, and a testament to the team’s incredible effort and progress in testing and incrementally pushing the aircraft’s performance envelope. It’s a remarkable achievement that shows our aircraft’s capability, and we are excited to continue working towards our next goals all the way to EASA certification in 2025.”

Interestingly, AutoFlight is one of the few eVTOL manufacturers that has mastered the transition from vertical, to horizontal flight, as the aircraft actually flies on the wing.