An air mobility company working on flying cars and cargo drones has announced that the company’s application for a Type 2 Certificate for its flying car was accepted by Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT).
Tokyo-based SkyDrive, whose slogan is: “Liberate yourself with flying and driving”, said that it now on track to launch a flying car service in the Osaka Bay area in 2025.
Under Japan’s Civil Aeronautics Law, MLIT issues a type certificate to certify that the design, structure, strength, and performance of a newly developed aircraft meet the necessary safety and environmental requirements for each type of aircraft. Certification is only granted after the aircraft had gone through a battery of studies and tests, including strength tests and flight tests. This is the first time that MLIT has accepted an application for a type certificate for a flying car.
Tomohiro Fukuzawa, CEO of SkyDrive said: “SkyDrive and MLIT have been discussing how to safely develop and test this type of aircraft since the Public-Private Council to promote urban air mobility was launched in Japan in 2018 and SkyDrive received permission for the first outdoor test flight of its flying car.
“We are very pleased that our application for type certification has been accepted and we will continue to work in close partnership with the government and MLIT to complete our development of a wholly safe and reliable flying car.”
SkyDrive was established in July 2018 with the mission of “Leading a once-in-a-century mobility revolution.” Since then, it has been furthering its development of flying cars and cargo drones and working in partnership with others to promote the shared vision of a future world where people can use air mobility as a means of transportation in their daily lives.
In the development of flying cars, SkyDrive is the only company in Japan that has successfully conducted manned test flights and it is involved in designing the future system of an air mobility society as a member of Japan’s Public-Private Council for advanced air mobility. The company’s cargo drones, which can carry payloads of more than 30kg, are already being used at worksites in Japan, mainly in mountainous areas.
