The first prototype of the Eve has been unveiled in Brazil.
FARNBOROUGH—Eve Air Mobility, Embraer’s advanced air mobility spinoff, has rolled out the first of six Eve prototypes to support the program through developmental flight testing.
The full-scale Eve prototype was presented at an internal event at Embraer’s Gaviao Peixoto flight-test center in Brazil earlier this month, Eve CEO Johann Bordais announced July 21 as the Farnborough Airshow prepared to open its doors.
To be flown remotely, the first prototype will fly this year. It will perform flight tests to prove the hover, transition and cruise capability of the nine-motor electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft, enabling the company to fine-tune control laws and measure aircraft noise. That aircraft will be followed by five so-called "conforming prototypes," production of which will begin this year at Embraer’s São José dos Campos facility.
“The prototype will help us validate the models that we've been developing… With the five conforming prototypes that we will start to build this year and then throughout next year, we'll be able to make sure that we made the right choices,” Bordais said.
The uncrewed prototype will not be used to gather credit for certification. That task will fall to the five conformal prototypes.
Development of the Eve has been buoyed by letters of intent for 2,900 aircraft from 30 customers in 13 countries.
Earlier this month, Eve was bolstered by more than $94 million of equity financing from multiple investors, and an additional $1.6 million is being provided by Space Florida, adding to $2.3 million the same organization had already provided after the IPO.
This $95 million “gives us a fully funded operational company until 2027,” Bordais said. “We have the runway, we're good to go—now we can focus on delivering the solution for our customers."
The company has now finalized its selection of primary suppliers for the Eve. Germany’s Diehl Aviation has been selected to design and produce the interior of the aircraft, while Italy’s ASE Aerospace will develop and produce the Primary High Voltage Power Distribution System and Primary Low Voltage Power Distribution System as well as the High Voltage DC-DC (Direct Current) converter that will connect the two systems on the eVTOL.
In addition to preparing for flight testing, Eve has begun exploring and attempting to measure the public perception of eVTOL operations by exposing people through virtual and augmented reality simulations of the perceived noise levels produced by the Eve, as well as the sight of them flying low over urban areas. “We've had good feedback on this, we've seen that interestingly, the visual perception is more significant in terms of the feedback that we receive than the noise,” Bordais said.
Eve claims the eVTOL will be 65% quieter than using helicopters on urban air mobility routes, offering 10-15 dB reductions in noise during takeoff, hovering and landing when compared with a conventional helicopter. The sound produced by the Eve will typically be imperceptible over general city noise such as road traffic, Bordais suggested.
As well as the aircraft, Eve continues to develop a portfolio of agnostic services and operations systems including Vector, a unique urban air traffic management software program designed to optimize and scale advanced air mobility operations worldwide.
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