Eve flies eVTOL prototype for Brazilian president in high-profile test milestone

Eve Air Mobility flew its full-scale engineering prototype for Brazilian authorities, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, at parent company Embraer’s test facility in Gavião Peixoto, Brazil, marking the latest step in the company’s eVTOL certification campaign.

Eve said the event on March 25, 2026, also drew the presidents of Brazil’s civil aviation regulator ANAC and development bank BNDES, along with cabinet ministers responsible for science, technology, ports and airports.

Eve Air MobilityThe engineering prototype has now completed 35 flights and logged nearly 1.5 hours of total flight time since its first flight in December 2025. The company said the aircraft has reached 140 feet above ground level while demonstrating stable behavior under the conditions tested so far, including maneuvers involving simultaneous inputs across three axes.

Eve said early results point to propulsion and battery performance running ahead of initial expectations, while noise levels have remained within projections and significantly below those of conventional helicopters. Testing to date has focused on low-speed operations up to 15 knots, validating control laws, rotor aerodynamic efficiency, thermal behavior and the propulsion model. The company said it plans to expand the flight envelope and begin flights up to 30 knots in the coming days.

Eve Air MobilityEve CEO Johann Bordais said the campaign is moving forward on a deliberate timetable as the company works to reduce risk and prepare for future certification flights. “We are advancing with discipline and consistency in our flight test campaign, reducing risk and building the foundation for future certification flights,” Bordais said. “The results achieved in these first months following our initial flight in December 2025 reinforce our confidence in the aircraft’s architecture and our ability to deliver a safe, efficient and scalable solution for the urban air mobility market.”Embraer CEO Francisco Gomes Neto said the parent company’s decades of aircraft development and certification experience are being applied directly to the Eve program, which he described as having strong long-term potential in the urban air mobility market.

Eve said it is participating in the development of Brazil’s National Urban Air Mobility Policy and noted support from BNDES, which has provided more than $268 million in financing since 2022, and from Finep, which has approved up to about $17.3 million in grants for digital innovation and sustainable aviation initiatives. Those figures are converted from the company’s stated totals of BRL 1.4 billion and BRL 90 million, using a March 25, 2026, exchange rate of about 5.2165 reais per US dollar.

Based in Melbourne, Florida, Eve is publicly traded and majority owned by Embraer. The company has said it is targeting 2027 for certification and entry into service of the aircraft, with six conforming prototypes expected to support the certification campaign under ANAC leadership.The post Eve flies eVTOL prototype for Brazilian president in high-profile test milestone appeared first on AeroTime.

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