Embraer says it will produce 1st full-size ‘flying car’ prototype later this year in Brazil | Innovation

Eve Air Mobility, Embraer’s urban air mobility company, announced that it will produce the first full-size “flying car” (eVTOL) prototype “by the end of this year”. The vehicle will be assembled in Taubaté, in the interior of São Paulo.

You first flight campaign tests should also take place later this year in the city of Gavião Peixoto330 km from the capital of São Paulo.

The details were confirmed to g1 by Daniel Moczydlower, president of Embraer-X, Embraer’s innovation area, during the Web Summit Rio 2024.

The aircraft, officially known as eVTOL (or “electric vertical take-off landing vehicle”), does not yet have an official name, but is internally called the Eve 01according to Moczydlower.

The full-scale prototype is known as 1:1 (or “one to one”), because the measurement of the test model is the same as that of the real object. In 1:3 prototypes, for example, each unit of the test model is equivalent to three units of measurement of the real object.

“Eve had only assembled and even flown the 1:3 scale model, which is like a giant drone. Now, we are going to produce the real vehicle, which we will use in the future”, says Moczydlower to g1. “This is an essential step to begin certification with Anac”, he added.

Although this sector faces several challenges, such as regulation, infrastructure, pilot training, among others, Daniel Moczydlower believes that Brazil can stand out in the world of “flying cars”.

This was one of the topics he addressed in the panel “Will Brazil win the air taxi race?”, during the Web Summit Rio 2024.

“We didn’t come out first. Some countries started before Brazil in the eVTOL race, but I still think that with the combination of Eve supported by Embraer, which has more than 50 years of experience, and the technical competence of Anac, Brazil has a good chance in this race”, says the executive.

According to him, Eve’s biggest competitive advantage is the possibility of using Embraer’s infrastructure to speed up tests, saving time and money.

“We already have the largest flight test center in the Southern Hemisphere, in Gavião Peixoto. There will be no need to build another one and Eve can now use this structure”, he adds.

In March, the National Civil Aviation Agency (Anac) opened a sectoral consultation to present suggestions and ideas that could integrate the certification and regulation of eVTOLs in Brazil.

To g1, the organization said that the “contributions received are currently in the analysis phase and can be consulted at this link”. According to them, for now, there is no pre-defined schedule for the next steps.

Meet the Chinese “flying car” that awaits release to be tested in Brazil

New York carries out first tests with “flying cars”