FutureFlight
Samad Aerospace Begins Flight Testing of e-Starling Demonstrator
The company is seeking further investment in its eVTOL project and appears to be taking steps to relocate from its base in the UK.
Samad Aerospace e-Starling
In November 2020, Samad Aerospace achieved a first flight with a 50 percent scale model of its planned e-Starling eVTOL aircraft. (Image: Samad Aerospace)

Samad Aerospace has achieved the first flight with a 50 percent scale model of its e-Starling all-electric aircraft. The UK-based company announced that the flight was made on November 17 at an undisclosed location and was a conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) operation from a runway.

Video footage of the flight shows it to have taken place in a desert location, which is clearly not Samad’s headquarters at Cranfield Airport in England. The company said that it now aims to begin vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) flight trials during 2021. It added that the flight test location is "confidential" and that it is situated in a "low-cost economy."