Eve plots US air taxi demos despite exclusion from pilot programme

The Florida air taxi developer, majority owned by Brazil’s Embraer, plans to begin US air taxi demonstration flights in 2028.
Eve Air Mobility may have been shut out of the US government’s air taxi demonstration programme, but it is still working to strengthen its US partnerships and plans to complete US demonstration flights in 2028, prior to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification.

Eve is also closing in on completing the first “transition” flight of its prototype electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, and plans by year-end to freeze the design of its production aircraft.

“Even before the type certificate being validated by the FAA, we expected to start our demo flights here in the US,” Eve head of airworthiness and regulatory affairs Jose Agustinho said on 6 October. “We are going to have an aircraft with a high maturity level to provide the demo flights.”

The company aims for its four-passenger Eve 100 air taxi to first be certificated by Brazilian regulators in 2028, and shortly after to achieve FAA and European certifications.

Because it is majority owned by Brazilian airframer Embraer, Melbourne, Florida-based Eve does not qualify to participate in the USA’s eVTOL Integration Pilot Programme (eIPP), Eve confirms to FlightGlobal.

Created by the administration of President Donald Trump, eIPP is a government effort to support air taxi developers, including by facilitating demonstration flights. Eve’s primary US competitors – Archer Aviation, Beta Technologies and Joby Aviation – are participating.

The FAA opened the programme only to US companies, defined as those “not directly or indirectly owned or controlled by a foreign entity”, programme documents show.

Even if Eve could have participated, chief executive Johann Bordais says the company does not have an available demonstration aircraft – and will not until “late 2028”. The company has been following what its executives describe as a steady, cautious development and certification path.

But Eve is not sitting out the US market until late 2028.

The company on 6 October hosted a eVTOL “Florida Ecosystem Summit” at the state’s newly opened “SunTrax” facility – a central Florida advanced air mobility (AAM) research and development site composed of hangars, vertiports, charging pads and an “AAM aerial test track”. Attendees included Bordais and other Eve executives, and representatives from customers, infrastructure providers, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, several Florida airports and the Florida Department of Transportation.

SunTrax, which is about 100 miles (160km) west of Eve’s Melbourne headquarters, is critical to the company’s US market strategy. It plans to use the site under a partnership with the state to evaluate eVTOL operations and develop required infrastructure and flight procedures.

Florida envisions air taxi operations initially traversing the Interstate 4 corridor, a region stretching across central Florida that includes Daytona Beach, Cape Canaveral, Orlando and Tampa.

Meanwhile, Eve has been flight testing its prototype aircraft out of public view, at Embraer’s Brazilian test site in Gaviao Peixoto.

It completed the aircraft’s first flight in December and in July started a series of flights to evaluate the aircraft’s transition from vertical to forward flight. Those tests involve activating the prototype’s pusher prop and gradually increasing its forward speed until hitting 85kt (157km/h), at which the aircraft will be in full wingborne flight, says Bordais.

The team has already flown the aircraft at speeds up to 30kt and remains on track to hit 85kt by year-end, he adds.

“This vehicle is for us to learn as much as possible… We’re learning about the loads, about the noise level, about what it takes to transition to the horizontal flight.”

Eve also plans before year-end to complete the critical design review for, and freeze the configuration of, the Eve 100.

That work involves ensuring the aircraft’s battery “containment” system sufficiently protects it from a battery fire – at least long enough for the pilot to land and all occupants to evacuate, says Bordais. Eve’s battery supplier BAE Systems is working on the containment system at its site in Endicott, New York.

Eve expects its aircraft’s range at service entry will be roughly 43-46nm (80-85km) – sufficient to meet the requirements of essentially all Eve’s early customers, Bordais says.

Those customers have ordered or signed letters of intent to order some 2,700 air taxis, of which some 100 are covered under “binding agreements” valued at $500 million, says Eve vice-president of customer services Luiz Mauad.

The company is selling the aircraft at $5 million each, executives say.

The post Eve plots US air taxi demos despite exclusion from pilot programme first appeared on FlightGlobal.

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