Releases Onboard Video With Gov’t VIPs Attending

Japanese eVTOL aircraft developer SkyDrive announced the successful completion of a series of demo flights of its SKYDRIVE, the SD-05 model, it conducted at the Expo 2025 held in Osaka, Japan, from July 31 to August 24.

The flights lasted between five and ten minutes in duration and took the aircraft from the Expo venue’s vertiport out over the Osaka Bay.

One of the demo flights was performed with visiting VIPs in attendance: Hirofumi Yoshimura, the Governor of Osaka Prefecture, Kazunori Tanaka, Chairman of the Diet Members’ Association for the Promotion of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, Yoshiro Taguchi, Director-General of the Aviation Network Department of the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau, Furuichi Shigeru, Director of the Advance Air Mobility Office.

Also attending were Takeshi Ito, Associate Director General of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and Kenichi Fujino, Representative Executive Officer and Vice President of The Kansai Electric Power Company, Incorporated, the company that provided SkyDrive with equipment for charging the aircraft.

In September, SkyDrive will perform more demo flights from the Osakako vertiport operated by Osaka Metro Co., Ltd. The company said that the Osakako vertiport is in a more densely populated area and the move is designed to gain wider public acceptance of eVTOLs as a regular means of public daily transport.

The Osakako flights will be conducted from September 15 – 23 and will be flown by the same aircraft that flew at the Expo 2025.

FMI:  en.skydrive2020.com/