Eve Air Mobility First Flight of Full-Scale Prototype

By Garth Calitz

Urban transportation transformed on December 19, 2025. At Embraer’s famous flight test facility in Gavião Peixoto, São Paulo, a quiet revolution unfolded in the air. Eve Air Mobility embarked on the flight-test phase of its mission, achieving the first hover flight of its full-scale, uncrewed electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) prototype.

For an industry that has long vowed to turn "The Jetsons" from fiction into reality, this milestone signifies more than just a technical achievement; it marks the beginning of the era of Urban Air Mobility (UAM).

The first flight was a meticulously engineered hover intended to confirm the integration of the aircraft's essential systems. Central to the prototype is Eve's fifth-generation fly-by-wire architecture and a distinctive lift-plus-cruise design, incorporating eight fixed-pitch lifter rotors.

Although the flight was relatively short, its impact was significant. The engineering team collected high-quality data that validated the aircraft's dynamic response, energy management and noise profile. These metrics are crucial for a vehicle intended to function in densely populated, noise-sensitive urban areas.

“Today, Eve flew. This is a historical milestone for our employees, customers, investors, and the entire ecosystem,” said Johann Bordais, CEO of Eve Air Mobility. “This flight validates our plan, which has been executed with precision. We were able to capture high-quality data that will allow us to move forward with safety and confidence.”

A particularly promising outcome from the Gavião Peixoto tests was the strong resemblance between the physical prototype and its digital twin. Luiz Valentini, Eve’s Chief Technology Officer, remarked that the aircraft performed precisely as anticipated based on pre-flight modelling and simulation. “We verified the integration of the eight lifter rotors and confirmed the performance of critical systems,” Valentini explained. “With these data points in hand, we can now expand the flight envelope and progress toward transition to wingborne flight in a disciplined manner.”

This methodical approach forms the foundation of Eve's strategy. In 2026, the company aims to increase to hundreds of flights, progressively expanding the limits of the aircraft's speed and manoeuvrability.

Eve’s roadmap is ambitious but grounded in the industrial reality of aerospace manufacturing. To achieve its goal of entry into service in 2027, the company is following a rigorous certification path:

• Six Conforming Prototypes: Eve will manufacture a fleet of six aircraft to support the full flight-test campaign. These will be used to validate performance and safety margins across various weather and operational conditions.

• Global Regulatory Alignment: While Brazil’s National Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC) is the primary certifying authority, Eve is simultaneously engaging with the FAA (USA) and EASA (Europe) to ensure a global rollout.

• Operational Simplicity: By utilising a lift-plus-cruise design without tilting wings or complex rotors, Eve aims to maximise reliability and minimise maintenance costs for future operators.

One of Eve's most significant competitive edges is its heritage. As part of Embraer, Eve benefits from over 55 years of aerospace expertise. This background gives Eve a "mature" startup culture, blending the nimbleness of a tech innovator with the established safety standards, manufacturing capacity, and worldwide support network of a leading aerospace powerhouse.

For operators, this means "dispatchability." A flying taxi is only profitable when airborne and Eve's emphasis on simplicity guarantees that the aircraft is straightforward to maintain and can be quickly prepared between urban trips.

As the flight test campaign gains momentum in 2026, the industry's attention is firmly on São Paulo. The successful realisation of this full-scale prototype turns years of conceptual design into concrete, flyable hardware.

The objective has shifted from merely demonstrating that an electric aircraft can fly to proving that it can do so safely, quietly and on a scale that transforms urban transportation. With the inaugural flight recorded, Eve Air Mobility has made significant progress toward establishing the sky as a regular transit route for everyone.