Cartivator SkyDrive (technology demonstrator)

(Image credit: SkyDrive)

SkyDrive (technology demonstrator)
Cartivator (now SkyDrive)
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan
www.skydrive.co.jp

Founded in July 2018, SkyDrive Inc. is an electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) manufacturer based in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan. Tomohiro Fukuzawa is the chief executive officer and Nobuo Kishi is the chief technology officer. The mission of the company is to take the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution to design and produce eVTOL passenger and air cargo aircraft for advanced air mobility (AAM). According to a SkyDrive article on April 6, 2023, its cumulative funding has now exceeded ¥15 billion yen.

The company's goals is to make eVTOL aircraft safer than conventional aircraft, less costly, less noisy, autonomous and that require less infrastructure. The plan is to start using the aircraft in the mid-2020s for air transportation of goods and people in areas where conventional public transportation is slow or almost nonexistent in rural and urban areas. The company's vision is to create a future where everyone has access to eVTOL aircraft as their daily transportation in Japan and across the world. Cartivator had a website that worked since its founding but the website has been taken down as of the fall of 2025.

Brief history
A brief history of the company starts in September 2012 when Tomohiro Fukuzawa formed a volunteer group automotive, drone and aviation industry professionals, who would meet outside of business hours and started discussions by first stating "Let's do something interesting". Based on Fukuzawa's automotive background, he asked the group a fundamental question, "How do people move?" Eventually, more than 100 ideas were talked about, such as cars which could also be submarines to small enough cars that could move from room to room, inside a building.

After a year and a half of discussions in 2013, the group decided on flying cars. The company they formed was called Cartivator. The company name was created by combining the word car and cultivate with the definition of cultivate being more towards the word pioneer. As the business matured, it became difficult to continue with volunteer workers. This is why in July 2018, about 30 people from Cartivator founded SkyDrive Inc. The company originally had plans to make a flying car, a vehicle that can fly in the "Sky" and "Drive" on the road, hence the name SkyDrive. However, the company is only making eVTOL passenger aircraft at this time.

SkyDrive remote controlled subscale eVTOL aircraft and roadable (technology demonstrator)
The Cartivator SkyDrive is remote controlled subscale eVTOL aircraft and roadable vehicle. The technology demonstrator has no payload capability. The technology demonstrator has a hard upper shell that covers the electronics and batteries. There are propeller safety shields to protect the blades from hitting people or objects. There technology demonstrator has fixed tricycle wheeled landing gear. The aircraft can drive on flat surfaces and roads. The aircraft is small enough to be easily carried by one person.

Predicted Full-Scale Prototype
In 2017, the expected full-scale production aircraft is planned to hold two people with a canopy over the cockpit. The targeted maximum speed is 100 km/h (62 mph) and the average travel speed is expected to be 60 km/h (37 mph) and has an estimated 50 m (164 ft) altitude. Its maximum take-off weight will be 400 kg (882 lb). The aircraft will have two forward and two aft VTOL propellers that are extended above and below the fuselage sides. The full-scale production model's size has been estimated to be 36 m L x 1.1 m H x 3.1 m W (11.8 ft L x 3.6 ft H x 10.17 ft W) in flight. The aircraft will land on the wheels of the aircraft.

Specifications (July 2017):

• Aircraft type: Uncrewed 1/5 sub-scale eVTOL aircraft and road capable (technology demonstrator)
• Piloting: Remote controlled
• Capacity: 0 passengers
• Cruise speed (air and ground): Unknown
• Propellers: 4 propellers
• Electric motors: 4 electric motors
• Electric motors for wheels: 3 electric motors. One electric motor to steer the front wheel and two electric motors for the back wheels.
• Fuselage: Light weight unknown material
• Power source: Batteries
• Landing gear: Fixed tricycle wheeled landing gear. These wheels are also used to drive the vehicle on roads.
• Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers (or ducted fans) and motors on the aircraft so if one or more propellers (ducted fans) or motors fail, the other working propellers (or ducted fans) and motors can safely land the aircraft. There are also redundancies in the sub-systems of the aircraft.

Related Aircraft:

• Cartivator SkyDrive (concept design)
• SkyDrive SD-XX (concept design)
• SkyDrive SD-01 (technology demonstrator)
• SkyDrive SD-02 (technology demonstrator)
• SkyDrive SD-03 (technology demonstrator)
• SkyDrive SD-05 (concept design)
• SkyDrive SD-05 (prototype)
• SkyDrive SkyLift (cargo drone)

Company Insights:

• Crunchbase
• Pitchbook
• Tracxn

Resources:

• SkyDrive website
• SkyDrive Facebook
• SkyDrive X (Formerly Twitter)
• SkyDrive YouTube
• SkyDrive Instagram
• SkyDrive LinkedIn
• Article: Toyota Backs Japanese Flying Car Startup, Aviation Week, May 16, 2017
• Article: Toyota-supported flying car hopes to light the Tokyo 2020 Olympic flame, Reuters, June 3, 2017
• Article: Will Japan win the flying car race?, CNN, June 20, 2017
• Article: Cargo eVTOL Matures, Vertiflite, March/April 2020