'Year-End' For First Prototype Flight From Eve Air Mobility Eve Air Mobility is continuing to push ahead with its eVTOL ambitions for fielding the Eve-100 with its first flight. It appears they are targeting the end of 2025 for the first flight but the road has not been easy with the company posting second quarter losses that have jumped from $36.4 million to $64.7 million. The Embraer-backed company will actually aim to fly an engineering prototype by the end of the year. This aircraft will not have the updated wing and propeller designs.
The first conforming aircraft is timelined to be airborne in 2026 - perhaps towards the end of 2026- and then a year for certification testing for type certification in 2027. Eve had a mockup of the aircraft and its new wing and propeller design at the Paris Air Show. It is also interesting how the design of the Eve aircraft has changed from a few years ago to now to conform with what appears to be industry-wide perceived eVTOL design styling.
What is most interesting, is that Eve Air Mobility appears to be moving towards using one of its competitors electric propulsion system. BETA Technologies has now cemented itself and being one of the premier companies with electric propulsion motors. BETA Technologies doesn't just do electric propulsion motors but they also make batteries as well as charging stations for the aircraft.
Johann Bordais, CEO at Eve said the company is 'considering' BETA's proprietary motors as an alternative to those already provided by existing partner Nidec Aerospace. Should they go ahead with BETA, there will be some changes that need to be made as there are differences in size, integration requirements, and control and cooling systems between the two propulsion systems. For more information: Eve Air Mobility São José dos Campos State of São Paulo Brazil www.eveairmobility.com ***
