Eve Air Mobility has announced that its engineering prototype has completed its first partial transition flight, marking a milestone in the development and testing of the company’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
The flight involved activating the aircraft’s rear pusher propeller, marking the beginning of the transition phase from vertical flight to wing-borne flight. During the test, the aircraft reached a stabilised speed of 27 knots and a maximum ground speed of 30 knots, while the pusher propeller was activated up to 1,200 RPM.
The flight lasted 3 minutes and 9 seconds, covered approximately 0.84 nautical miles and reached a maximum altitude of 90 feet above ground level.
“This first partial transition flight is an important milestone in Eve’s development journey,” said Johann Bordais, chief executive officer of Eve Air Mobility. “Successfully activating the pusher propulsion system in flight validates a key aspect of our aircraft design and brings us one step closer to delivering safe, efficient and scalable air mobility solutions.”
The transition phase is a critical part of eVTOL flight, involving the aircraft’s movement from vertical lift to forward flight. The successful completion of the initial partial transition test advances Eve’s efforts to expand the aircraft’s flight envelope and validate system performance.
“This flight successfully demonstrated pusher activation in flight and validated key performance targets at the start of the transition phase,” said Marcelo Basile, head of engineering at Eve Air Mobility. “The data collected will support continued envelope expansion as we advance toward higher speeds and more complex transition flight testing.”
Eve’s flight-test engineering team is continuing loads and structural analyses to support future expansion of the aircraft’s flight envelope. Following the current flight-testing programme, the company plans to conduct datalink testing to validate radio-link performance and support operations at speeds of up to 50 knots.
Over the coming weeks, Eve expects to progressively expand the aircraft’s airspeed envelope, including additional flights with pusher activation as part of its broader transition flight-test campaign.
