Air taxi maker AutoFlight stages ‘first’ triple eVTOL prototype flight

Ambitious air taxi developer AutoFlight added another aerial first to its collection of exploits this week with the announcement it had staged a flight of three different prototypes of its Prosperity I electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in coordinated formation.

AutoFlight said the trio of its eVTOLs performed “a world first formation flight” by battery-powered next-generation aircraft currently under development by advanced air mobility companies for air taxi services. The firm conducted the demonstration outside Shanghai, and used three iterations of the proof-of-concept test versions of its Prosperity I aircraft.

For an emerging sector in which arguably most startups have yet to produce a physical aircraft – much less test-fly one – getting three iterations of a plane aloft in tandem is quite an exploit (indeed, according to AutoFlight, unprecedented).

The synchronized automated sortie by the AutoFlight…