SkyDrive’s three-seat SD-05 eVTOL aircraft prototype made its first public demonstration flights during a media event ahead of the World Expo 2025 in Osaka, Japan, on April 9. During the flight, which lasted about four minutes, the remotely piloted and highly automated aircraft reached an altitude of 5 meters, according to SkyDrive.

“At the Expo, which is about to begin, we hope attendees will discover how, in [the] future, people will fly through the skies in eVTOLs as a regular part of city life,” SkyDrive CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa said in a company statement.

The Osaka World Expo officially opens on April 13 and will last through October 13. SkyDrive is one of a handful of eVTOL aircraft manufacturers participating in public flight demonstrations during the six-month-long event, which is themed “Designing Future Society for Our Lives.” SkyDrive intends to conduct both point-to-point and circular flight demonstrations there starting this summer.

Although the original plan was to have commercial air taxi flights for World Expo attendees, none of the participating eVTOL teams were able to certify their aircraft in time, so only demonstration flights without passengers have been approved.

In addition to SkyDrive, California-based Joby Aviation also intends to fly at the event. Joby’s first flight in Japan took place well ahead of the World Expo, in November 2024, at its partner Toyota’s test facility in Shizuoka. Japan Airlines, which originally teamed with German eVTOL developer Volocopter to fly at the World Expo, switched to a team led by Archer Aviation in California as Volocopter suffered from ongoing financial woes.

SkyDrive became the first company to conduct a public demonstration flight with an eVTOL air taxi prototype in 2020, and the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) confirmed the certification basis for the SD-05 aircraft in February. In the U.S., the FAA accepted SkyDrive’s application for a type certificate in April 2024. SkyDrive intends to secure U.S. approval via the FAA’s validation of the Japanese type certificate, which the company aims to achieve in 2026.

Announcing its first Osaka flights on April 9, SkyDrive also released new video footage of an earlier SD-05 prototype conducting test flights at the company’s facility in Toyota, located about 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of Osaka in Japan’s Aichi prefecture. According to SkyDrive, the prototype participating in the Osaka demonstrations has the same design. 

“SkyDrive’s story in Osaka will continue after the Expo,” Fukuzawa said. “Last year, Osaka Metro Co., Ltd and SkyDrive announced plans for the ‘Osaka Diamond Routes,’ proposed eVTOL routes connecting four key Osaka destinations: Shin-Osaka/Umeda, Morinomiya, Tennoji/Abeno, and the Osaka Bay Area. Similar initiatives for the post-Expo period are underway throughout Japan.”