Raphael Thys
Japan's aircraft manufacturing company SkyDrive, which unveiled its ultra-light compact flying car, the SD-03 at the CES 2022, is aiming to start its flying taxi service by 2025. The Tokyo-based company was established in July 2018 and has invested in developing electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles and cargo drones. According to the company, they are designing super stable eVTOLs to enable fast and safe door-to-door transportation anywhere, including uses for emergency rescue.
CES 2022 attendees - have you seen our full-scale flying car yet? It is the first time for us to showcase this ultra-light and compact flying vehicle that had completed a piloted flight test in countries other than Japan. pic.twitter.com/JUUWYxyjUP
SkyDrive CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said as per a company statement, "SkyDrive’s emission-free vehicles can quickly take off from and land in your parking lot and helipads atop buildings, making door-to-door air service a realistic choice of daily urban transportation. We are working harder and faster than ever to make this once-in-a-century mobility revolution a reality". As mentioned above, the company showcased its innovation at the ongoing CES 2022 event in Las Vegas, which was also SkyDrive's first event outside Japan.
The vehicle showcased at the event was Model SD-03, which was a demonstration for the autonomous SD-05 which is currently under development. The company is aiming to kickstart its business with the latter after unveiling it as a flying taxi at the World Expo 2025 in Osaka. It is worth mentioning that SkyDrive has been tested for manned flights and recently got certified by the Japanese government. "SkyDrive recently advanced toward commercialization with the Japanese transportation ministry’s acceptance of its type certificate application, a major milestone that no other flying vehicle developers have reached in Japan", the company said in its statement.
Features of SkyDrive's SD-03 unveiled at CES 2022
The model released by SkyDrive at the CES 2022 is a driver-only vehicle that runs on electricity and is equipped with eight propellers. As per SkyDrive's description of the vehicle, it can carry a maximum weight of 400 kg and is capable of cruising at 40-50 kilometres per hour for five to ten minutes. The company had revealed the first prototype of its eVTOL in 2018 and conducted the first manned flight in 2020. According to a report by Interesting Engineering, more companies such as Lilium and Volocopter are also planning to kickstart their flying car business this decade.