Embraer’s Eve Urban Air Mobility Solutions, Inc. (Eve) and leading vertiport company Skyports have formed a partnership to develop urban air mobility (UAM) solutions, with a focus on vehicle-vertiport operations in early adopter markets in Asia and the Americas.
The agreement extends the relationship between the two organizations, which began in early 2020 while Eve was incubated at EmbraerX. As UAM nears initial launch in multiple markets around the world, the companies will use Eve’s zero-emission and low noise eVTOL vehicle, Urban Air Traffic Management (UATM) software, and UAM services to develop a concept of operations that will inform operational procedures, as well as vehicle and services development. Together, the companies aim to rapidly advance and disrupt the industry by bringing Eve’s innovative eVTOL vehicle to the market, where passengers will experience the future of electric transportation and a new model of sustainable mobility.
As part of this collaboration, Skyports will contribute to a market readiness exercise and a vehicle concept of operation study in Brazil, furthering Eve’s development of the UAM market in the region. The organizations have already worked together developing a concept of operations with Airservices Australia and are currently collaborating to develop UAM operations in the UK.
Duncan Walker, Chief Executive Officer at Skyports, said: “Our partnership with Eve paves the way for rapid innovation in UAM, accelerating innovation to meet the growing demand for eVTOL services. We are looking forward to the expanded partnership, unlocking new opportunities in this fast-growing market.”
André Stein, President and Chief Executive Officer of Eve, said: “In transition to a low carbon economy, the aerospace industry depends on disruptive innovation to create a more sustainable future. With urban air mobility, we have a unique opportunity to co-create vertiports, vehicles, and operation, designing a new and optimized mobility ecosystem from the ground up. We are thrilled to have Skyports in this journey to develop UAM solutions in Asia and the Americas, bringing us a step closer in providing commuters and travellers with an entirely new, zero-emission, experience.”
Skyports is the world’s leading urban air mobility infrastructure provider. The company was the first to build a full-scale passenger air taxi vertiport – the take-off and landing infrastructure for eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) aircraft – which was launched as part of a trial that took place in Singapore in 2019. In addition to the Americas and Asia, Skyports currently has infrastructure projects in development in Europe and the Middle East.
Benefiting from a startup mindset and backed by Embraer’s more than 50-year history of aircraft manufacturing and certification expertise, Eve unveils a unique value proposition by positioning itself as an ecosystem partner by offering a suite of products and services. Eve’s human-centered, eVTOL design represents a simple and intuitive design that continues to reach development milestones, including the first flight of the engineering simulator in July 2020 and proof of concept in October 2020.
In addition to the aircraft program, Eve is harnessing the expertise of both Embraer and Atech, a subsidiary of the Embraer Group, in providing globally recognized air traffic management software to create the solutions that will help safely scale the UAM industry going forward.
