2024 Corporate Aviation Leadership Summit

AutoFlight has appointed a new U.S.-based leadership team to oversee its plans to start deliveries of the four-seat <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/aircraft-program/autoflight-evtol">Prosperity I </a>eVTOL aircraft for commercial service in 2026. The Chinese company this week named Eviation Aircraft’s founder and former CEO, Omer Bar-Yohay, as its president. It also named&nbsp;Joby Aviation’s former head of business development, Chad Cashin, as its chief commercial officer.
At a new U.S. base at Napa County Airport in California, AutoFlight will expand the flight envelope for the current version of the Prosperity model as it works to freeze the design by the end of 2022.&nbsp;The company’s expanded U.S. subsidiary will now work alongside th<a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2022-01-18/chinas-autoflight-establishes-european-subsidiary-advance-evtol-plans">e design organization</a> it established earlier this year in Augsburg, Germany, and its manufacturing hub near Shanghai.
Bar-Yohay is a friend of advanced air mobility investor Lukasz Gadowski, whose Team Global group led a <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2021-11-22/autoflight-lands-100-million-investment-v1500m-passenger-evtol-vehicle">$100 million funding round </a>for AutoFlight in November 2021. The Germany-based technology entrepreneur has also invested in rival eVTOL developers Volocopter and Archer. 
According to Bar-Yohay, AutoFlight’s decision to appoint U.S.-based leadership reflected a need to pursue FAA type certification to access a major market for eVTOL aircraft, and also a desire to have a more prominent center of corporate gravity outside China. “This company is a black swan that no one has paid attention to,” he told FutureFlight. “In the past, I was a big critic of eVTOLs, and I still am because it’s a big challenge and it won’t work if they are only green, quiet, and safe. They have to make economic sense and that means reduced production costs as well. The vehicles need to hit all those markers and not just be a new version of a helicopter.”
According to AutoFlight’s new leader, the company will be far more competitive on production costs than Western rivals and already has “hundreds” of employees in China focused on the manufacturing process. He argued that the Prosperity I will also cost much less to operate due to its&nbsp;“simplicity of design, avoiding complex electro-mechanical devices like tilting wings or rotors.” 
Another competitive differentiator, Bar-Yohay claimed, is the degree of vertical integration at AutoFlight, which he said will own almost every part and system in the aircraft, with the exception of its avionics suite. “The more you own, the more you control your destiny on costs,” he said.
The company has previously indicated that the base price for the Prosperity I could be as low as $150,000, which is far lower than the price for most Western-made eVTOL designs. It claims that flights in the aircraft, with a range of 250 kilometers (155 miles), could cost no more than current ground-based taxi services.
The first Prosperity I test flights in the U.S. are expected to happen at the end of the first quarter of 2023, which is also when the company aims to submit its initial type certification application to EASA in Europe with a view to completing this process in 2025. AutoFlight intends to increase the production of prototypes to step up test and development work&nbsp;at all three of its locations, including in China's&nbsp;Jiangsu province&nbsp;where the first proof-of-concept aircraft started flying in October 2021.
In June, AutoFlight released <a href="https://youtu.be/z38zbkYCtJ4">a video</a> showing a new design with what it says is an improved lift and cruise configuration, optimized lifting propellers, and enhanced hover and cruise performance. It is one of a handful of companies, also including Joby and EHang, to have achieved full transitions from vertical to horizontal flight with a full-scale eVTOL aircraft. The company says it has made over 100 such flights so far this year.
Meanwhile, there are signs that AutoFlight’s business model may be shifting to one that is more focused on engaging with existing commercial aircraft operators. In a <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2022-02-22/autoflight-promises-air-mobility-cost-revolution-its-prosperity-i-evtol">February 2022 interview</a>, founder and CEO Tian Yu told FutureFlight that mainstream general aviation operators are “too small” to achieve the scale he envisages and that major airlines will have only a peripheral interest in eVTOL aircraft, which he said will never have the range to fit into their networks.
“We will now be talking to operators with significant fleets, including Part 135 or charter operators,” said Bar-Yohay. While he now “buys into” the urban air mobility market (UAM) vision, he indicated that he does not expect the sector to scale up as early and as quickly as some eVTOL rivals have suggested it will in their&nbsp;aggressive pitches to investors to go public.
“The way UAM will unfold is incrementally around current helicopter services and hub-and-spoke operations [to and from airports and other locations], but then the question is who picks up the scale to a different level,” he commented. “Maybe it could be an Uber-like player, creating a bubble for high-volume operations. This could start with a few hundred aircraft in the early years, and the toolbox is certainly full of the tools needed to build the system.”
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 <div class="field field--name-field-caption field--type-string-long field--label-hidden field__item">Chad Cashin (left) is chief commercial officer of AutoFlight, which is now led by Omer Bar-Yohay as president. (Image: AutoFlight)</div>
 
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<figcaption>Chad Cashin (left) is chief commercial officer of AutoFlight, which is now led by Omer Bar-Yohay as president. (Image: AutoFlight)</figcaption>
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Chad Cashin, who is now leading AutoFlight’s commercial efforts, joined Joby almost three years ago when the company acquired Uber’s Elevate division. This division had been trying to establish a platform for on-demand eVTOL air taxi services.
Bar-Yohay co-founded Eviation Aircraft in 2015&nbsp;with Aviv Tzidon and left the company in February 2022 after a disagreement with its main shareholder, Clermont Group. Last week, Eviation achieved a long-awaited first flight with its Alice electric fixed-wing aircraft, which is now expected to be ready to start regional airline operations in 2027. He said that he still expects Eviation to succeed and remains a shareholder in the company.
AutoFlight, which also has plans for a family of <a href="https://www.futureflight.aero/news-article/2021-11-22/autoflight-lands-100-million-investment-v1500m-passenger-evtol-vehicle">cargo drones</a>,&nbsp;is close to completing another funding round, which Tian Yu has previously said would aim to raise another $200 million. Bar-Yohay indicated that further fundraising may well be required as the company approaches being ready to start serial production of the Prosperity I and, in his view, the source of this funding may well be driven by which markets prove most receptive to the aircraft and where it can find suitable partners.
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Managing Editor

Charles Alcock

China's AutoFlight Appoints U.S. Leadership Team for Prosperity eVTOL Aircraft

AutoFlight expects to be ready for a public demonstration of the finalized design of its four-seat Prosperity I eVTOL aircraft by the end of 2022 as it works toward&nbsp;achieving type certification by 2025. The Chinese company believes it will enter the advanced air mobility (AAM) market with production and operating costs that will allow it to significantly undercut Western competitors.
Last month, the AutoFlight team achieved the first full transition between vertical and horizontal operations during flight testing of a proof-of-concept prototype that started in October 2021 in Jiansu province. It reached an altitude of 150 meters (492 feet) and a speed of 123 mph. The company expects to be ready to submit a type certification application in the first quarter of 2023.
Also, by the end of 2022, AutoFlight aims to start cargo delivery services with its V400 and V50 autonomous aircraft. According to founder and CEO Tian Yu, in a February 17 meeting officials with the certification department of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) were “very supportive” of proposals to start operations away from populous, congested areas. These revenue-generating services, flown under an experimental license, will assess use cases for the V400 Albatross and V50 White Shark, which have respective payloads of 100 kg (220 pounds) and 20 kg (44 pounds), and a range of 220 and 500 km (137 and 311 miles). 
AutoFlight started flying both drones in 2019 and says that the data logged with these similar designs have&nbsp;allowed it to make rapid progress in developing the Prosperity I. The all-electric aircraft, which was earlier designated as the V1500, is expected to have a range of 250 km (155 miles) and a cruise speed of 200 km/h (125 mph).&nbsp;
To further advance plans to bring the Prosperity I to market, AutoFlight is working on an autonomous freight-delivery version called the CarryAll, for which it aims to have frozen the design by the third quarter of this year with a goal of achieving certification by around August 2023. According to Tian, early&nbsp;uses for this vehicle could include connections to smaller cities in mountainous regions of Southwest China, where a 30-minute flight could replace a 10-hour drive.
At face value, what the Prosperity I promises to bring to market is fairly similar to what some other lift-and-cruise eVTOL designs offer. But what will likely get the attention of rivals is AutoFlight’s claim that it will be able to deliver this at as little as 10 percent of the cost of other aircraft, with anticipated list prices of just $150,000 compared with what it says is a more typical price of $1.5 million per unit.
Tian told FutureFlight that this advantage largely results from&nbsp;the well-established and highly competitive supply chain for electric vehicle manufacturing in the Shanghai area, where AutoFlight is headquartered. It has a production facility for electric propulsion&nbsp;systems in Kunshan near the city and also a composite manufacturing plant at Jining in Shandong province. 
According to Tian, a typical electric vehicle drivetrain produced in the Shanghai area now costs around $1,100, and the anticipated cost of each unit for the Prosperity I will be $1,500. He anticipates the price for the aircraft’s eight vertical-lift motor/propeller units and a pair of pusher propellers will be close to $15,000. On top of this, he estimates airframe production costs to be about $50,000 per aircraft and expects flight controls and avionics to add&nbsp;another $40,000.
While AutoFlight is channeling electric automotive technology, the company does have an aviation pedigree. In 1999, Tian founded Yuneec, which quickly established itself as a major manufacturer of radio-controlled model aircraft before expanding into the production of larger electric aircraft and drones, including the E430 electric ultralight two-seat model and the single-seat&nbsp;e-Spyder. 
In 2016, after selling his stake in Yuneec, he formed AutoFlight, with his main financial backer being the Team Global venture capital group founded by European technology investor Lukasz Gadowski, who has also invested in other eVTOL manufacturers, including Volocopter and Archer. Tian said AutoFlight could initially produce as many as 1,000 examples of the CarryAll vehicle each year and that its new factory in Shanghai will be able to produce at least 5,000 units per year before the Prosperity I itself enters service in around three years from now.
Earlier this year, the company established its AutoFlight Europe subsidiary at Augsburg in Germany, where it intends to conduct much of the development and certification work as it prepares for EASA certification of the aircraft. This operation is being led by former Airbus executive Mark Henning.
Tian estimates that operating costs for the Prosperity I could be as low as $50 per flight hour, with the cost of electricity for the batteries accounting for around $15 of this total. AutoFlight’s plan is that passenger services will begin with a “safety pilot” on board to oversee the highly automated operation of the aircraft. It envisages the aircraft operating from landing pads on no more than 20 by 20 meters of real estate (4,300 square feet) and making as many as seven flights each hour.
In Tian’s view, fulfilling the potential for eVTOL operations in urban areas will require “a change in mindset” on the part of the industry. “For urban air mobility, the aircraft won’t be flying at over 1,000 feet and so they will still get a signal from a 4G or 5G station and will be in-network all the time,” he maintained. Whether regulators will feel comfortable that ground-based telecommunications can provide sufficient safety redundancy remains to be seen.
AutoFlight’s intention is to be completely self-sufficient in all aspects of design and production. Its business plans for the operational phase are also vertically integrated, with the company aiming to provide passenger and cargo transportation as services, albeit with some type of collaboration with mobility providers. 
Significantly, Tian does not view existing aircraft operators as natural partners for AutoFlight’s advanced air mobility business model. He dismissed general aviation operators as “too small” to achieve the scale he envisages and feels that major airlines will have only a peripheral interest in eVTOL aircraft, which he said will never have the range to fit into their networks.
So, instead, AutoFlight aims to connect with companies like German car rental group Sixt and U.S. ride-hailing network Lyft. Tian feels it is companies like these that need to be the retail face of advanced air mobility and achieve the transformative economies of scale that he feels today’s aviation industry is incapable of supporting.
“We’re not like other companies,” said AutoFlight’s chief marketing officer, Jack Xu, echoing Tian’s lofty ambitions for a revolution in public air mobility. “We want to unlock the skies for everyone, not just rich people."&nbsp;
In fact, AutoFlight's approach seems to mirror that of China-based EHang, which appears to be getting close to certifying its autonomous EH216 two-seat eVTOL for the domestic market. It, too, has taken advantage of the CAAC's willingness to allow significant latitude for pre-certification flight operations that in some cases have involved carrying passengers.
In November 2021, AutoFlight completed a $100 million funding round. Tian said that a further round of funding could be concluded by the end of June to add up to another $200 million to its capital base.
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AutoFlight Promises an Air Mobility Cost Revolution with Its Prosperity I eVTOL Aircraft

Chinese eVTOL aircraft developer AutoFlight is establishing a European subsidiary to advance plans to achieve EASA type certification for its planned Prosperity I four-seater vehicle. The group’s new AutoFlight Europe operation is in&nbsp;Augsburg in southern Germany and is being led by former Airbus executive Mark Henning.
The Shanghai-based manufacturer is&nbsp;recruiting engineers for the research and development and certification center in Augsburg. It aims to have the aircraft—which will carry three passengers and a pilot on flights of up to around 155 miles—ready to start air taxi operations by 2025.
Last year, AutoFlight raised $100 million through a Series A investment round led by European technology investor Lukasz Gadowski and his Germany-based company, Team Global. In October 2021, it reported a first flight for a proof-of-concept version of the passenger-carrying eVTOL aircraft that it then called the V1500M.
The Chinese company is also developing smaller cargo-only, fully autonomous vehicles, including the V400 Albatross with a 220-pound payload and 130-mile range, and the V50 with a 44-pound payload and a range of up to 311 miles. In July 2021, the Civil Aviation Administration of China accepted AutoFlight’s application to certify the V400. In 2019 it unveiled a design for what appeared to be a two-seat V600 model that now seems to have been replaced by the larger eVTOL, which has now been rebranded as Prosperity I.
According to Autoflight, it has already logged more than 10,000 flights with these smaller autonomous drones. It said it expects to demonstrate the lift and cruise Prosperity I vehicle in “transition tests in a few weeks”—presumably a reference&nbsp;to flights involving a transition from hover to cruise phases. 
Henning has spent the past 26 years with the Airbus group and&nbsp;served as a program manager with Airbus Helicopters for the past 19 years, with responsibility for products such as the EC135 rotorcraft. Earlier in his career, he worked for Augsburg-based Daimler-Benz Aerospace (DASA), which subsequently became part of the EADS group that includes Airbus.
“We are bringing aircraft construction back to Augsburg, creating a high-tech location and jobs as we build drones and create a completely new market segment for air taxis,” Henning commented. “What I really like about AutoFlight and Prosperity I is the underlying simple concept. Simplicity translates into safety and efficiency.”
AutoFlight already has a composite materials manufacturing plant at Jining in China’s Shandong province. It has been conducting research into flight-control systems in Germany for some time, and its plans now appear to call for the new eVTOL model to be assembled&nbsp;in the country as well.
China-based EHang also has ambitions to certify its EH216 and VT-30 eVTOL aircraft in Europe. Meanwhile, Aerofugia, which is part of Chinese automotive group Geely, is working to bring Terrafugia's Transition flying car to market and also has a partnership with German eVTOL developer Volocopter.

China's AutoFlight Establishes European Subsidiary To Advance eVTOL Plans

Chinese eVTOL aircraft developer AutoFlight says it has raised a further $100 million through a Series A investment round. The company, which so far has been primarily focused on bringing cargo-carrying vehicles to market, received most of the fresh backing from European technology investor Lukasz Gadowski and his company, Team Global.
In a November 22 announcement, the Shanghai-based AutoFlight&nbsp;reported that in October it achieved the first flight with its V1500M proof-of-concept passenger aircraft. It said it&nbsp;is now stepping up certification work in China, with plans to also seek EASA approval. 
The company aims to have the all-electric vehicle certified in 2024&nbsp;and claims to have logged more than 10,000 flights with various iterations of its lift-and-cruise designs. It said that it is developing the flight control system in-house, but declined to provide any further details about this or other key aircraft systems.
“We are very proud and excited to partner with such an amazing company as AutoFlight, its fantastic team, and its founder, Tian Yu,” said Gadowski. “The world doesn’t need to build more roads; it needs to preserve resources and nature. Autonomous air mobility is an emerging industry ready to grow, and I am convinced that AutoFlight will be one of its big players.”
The V1500M will be AutoFlight’s largest eVTOL vehicle to date, with a maximum takeoff weight of 1,500 kg (3,300 lb) and a range of just over 250 km (156 miles). The company has released few details about the V1500M's propulsion system and flight controls.
AutoFlight is also developing smaller cargo-only, fully autonomous vehicles, including the V400 Albatross with a 100-kg payload and 210-km range, and the V50 with a 20-kg payload and a range of up to 500 km. In July, the Civil Aviation Administration of China accepted AutoFlight’s application to certify the V400. In 2019 it unveiled a design for what appeared to be a two-seat V600 model that now seems to have been replaced by the larger V1500M.
Berlin-based Team Global has taken stakes in around a dozen aviation start-ups, including those involved in developing drones and flight-control technology. The finance group says it is prioritizing investments in sustainable aviation and is looking to back leading contenders in each region of the world. Reportedly, Gadowski has also invested in other advanced air mobility start-ups including Volocopter, Archer, and ZeroAvia.
According to AutoFlight, it already has a 2.3-million-square-foot manufacturing facility at Dinfeng in China. The company employs around 300 people and plans to double the payroll within&nbsp;12 months.
It faces domestic competition in China from rival eVTOL aircraft developer EHang, which claims to be close to bringing its two-seat EHang 216 into production and also has plans for a longer-range model.

AutoFlight Lands $100 Million Investment in V1500M Passenger eVTOL Vehicle

Autoflight Aviation Technology introduced the latest member of its family of autonomous eVTOL aircraft, the V400 Albatross, on September 13 at the World UAV Conference in Shenzhen, China. The Chinese company is starting with cargo-carrying unmanned aircraft for logistics operations&nbsp;but has already committed to developing larger eVTOL models for passenger services.
The V400 will offer a payload of 100 kg (220 pounds) and be available with all-electric propulsion, for which the maximum range will be 300 km (186 miles), rising to 1,000 km for a hybrid electric version. Shanghai-based Autoflight says that it intends to start test flying the V400 by the end of 2020 and that it has already begun taking orders for the aircraft. In addition to light freight deliveries, the company envisages the model being used for applications such as disaster relief and media support.
The new design features six sets of propellers, with three positioned on each of two parallel beams that connect the V400’s fixed wing to its canard. The all-composite aircraft has two additional tail-mounted propellers. The propulsion system for the all-electric version is based on two motors working in a push-pull configuration, while the hybrid model has a combustion engine at the rear.
Autoflight says that it has developed its own flight-control system, incorporating sense and avoid sensors and radar. The aircraft also has an integrated 4G/5G mobile network to support multi-channel communications. A whole aircraft parachute will be an optional safety feature.
The company has not yet published a proposed timeline for achieving type certification of the V400. However, the Civil Aviation Administration of China has already granted flight permits and approvals for trial logistical operations to other eVTOL developers such as EHang.
Autoflight presented a prototype of the two-seat V600 eVTOL model at the Aero Expo show in Germany in April 2019. Then last November, it announced plans for a larger unmanned V1000 cargo drone at the e-Flight Forum in China. The company has research and development facilities in Shenzhen and in Munich,&nbsp;Germany
Electric aviation entrepreneur Tian Yu founded Autoflight in 2016 and has been working on&nbsp;new designs for more than a decade. He previously founded consumer drone manufacturer Yuneec.
Tian’s earlier projects include the E340 two-seat electric ultralight, which first flew in June 2009 and was certified in November 2017 by German sports aviation agency DULV. Other designs being developed by Autoflight include the V50 White Shark electric drone, which achieved a flight lasting more than six hours on May 19, 2020, and the F240 firefighting multicopter, which can carry 100 kg (220 pounds) of flame-retardant materials.
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AutoFlight

News

China's AutoFlight Appoints U.S. Leadership Team for Prosperity eVTOL Aircraft

AutoFlight Promises an Air Mobility Cost Revolution with Its Prosperity I eVTOL Aircraft

China's AutoFlight Establishes European Subsidiary To Advance eVTOL Plans

AutoFlight Lands $100 Million Investment in V1500M Passenger eVTOL Vehicle

Autoflight Unveils Cargo eVTOL and Plans for Passenger Aircraft

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