• 28 Feb 2022 02:52 PM
• 0

AutoFlight Aiming at EASA Certification

AutoFlight announced on Jan. 18 that it had re-established a team in Germany that will focus on accelerating efforts to certify its Prosperity I eVTOL aircraft. The AutoFlight team, which is led by former Airbus manager Mark R. Henning, will be based at AutoFlight’s new research and development (R&D) center at Augsburg Airport. The Shanghai-based eVTOL developer has set a goal of certifying the Prosperity I with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) by 2025. 

The news comes on the heels of a Nov. 22 announcement that AutoFlight had raised a $100M Series A investment led by Berlin-based Team Global, led by Lukasz Gadowski, which is also backing Archer, Volocopter and ZeroAvia. And in October, AutoFlight revealed that the Prosperity I, previously known as the V1500M, had made its maiden flight in Shanghai (see “Electric VTOL News: AutoFlight Raises $100M to Advance V1500M,” Vertiflite, Jan/Feb 2022). AutoFlight, which is also developing cargo drones, aims to open additional offices in Europe to conduct test and evaluation flights of the Prosperity I. In a video posted to YouTube on Jan. 25, Henning said that the company is planning to conduct public demonstration flights later this year. AutoFlight previously had a R&D subsidiary near Munich, AutoFlightX, that was working on its now-defunct lift-plus-cruise V600 eVTOL project (see “AutoFlightX Prepares for Takeoff,” Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2019).