AutoFlight flew five electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft from two weight classes in a single autonomous formation at its Bailian Lake Flight Test Base in Kunshan, China, with the lead 5-ton V5000 Matrix covering more than 133 km (about 72 nautical miles) in 47 minutes.

In a press release dated November 3, 2026, the company said the demonstrations took place on October 31 and November 1 and that the whole formation flew with no manual intervention. AutoFlight describes it as a world first for five eVTOL aircraft across two weight classes. It builds on a three-aircraft mixed formation the company flew in May 2026, and it puts the heavy V5000 platform, now in airworthiness certification as a cargo variant, alongside the smaller V2000CG CarryAll, which already holds Chinese certification.

Five aircraft, three models, one formation

The formation combined one V5000 Matrix with four 2-ton aircraft. AutoFlight lists three models in the flight: the V5000 Matrix, the V2000CG CarryAll cargo eVTOL and the V2000CGF CarryAll firefighting eVTOL. The release does not say how many of the four 2-ton aircraft were cargo or firefighting variants.

According to the company, the flight demonstrated automated flight control and safe separation across different aircraft models and weight classes. AutoFlight said that despite strong winds on November 1, the formation stayed stable and kept safe horizontal and vertical separation. The company noted that coordinating aircraft of different sizes and mission profiles requires precise route planning, flight control, communication and safety management.

Guests at the demonstrations included alumni representatives from the Stanford Executive Program (SEP) at Stanford Graduate School of Business, international eVTOL industry professionals, and AutoFlight customers and partners. They also visited Sunship, which AutoFlight describes as its water-based green vertiport on Dianshan Lake, and watched the formation from the lakeside.

Where the V5000 Matrix programme stands

From unveiling to certification

AutoFlight unveiled the Matrix on February 5, 2026, calling it the first 5-ton class eVTOL aircraft, and publicly flew the full mode-transition sequence of vertical takeoff, cruise flight and vertical landing, as AirPro News reported on the Matrix transition flight in February. The aircraft has a 20-metre wingspan, a 17.1-metre length and a maximum takeoff weight of 5,700 kg, and uses the company’s compound wing Lift and Cruise configuration with a triplane layout and six arms.

The February release described two variants. The passenger version can be fitted with 10 business-class seats or six VIP seats. The cargo variant uses a hybrid power system, carries up to 1,500 kg and has a forward-opening door sized for two AKE standard air cargo containers. AutoFlight gave a maximum range of 250 km (about 135 nautical miles) for the pure electric version and 1,500 km (about 810 nautical miles) for the hybrid-electric variant.

On May 24, 2026, AutoFlight reported its first mixed three-aircraft formation, with one V5000 Matrix and two V2000-series aircraft, which tested communication links, route planning, flight coordination and safety control across 5-ton and 2-ton platforms. In the same release, the company said the cargo hybrid-electric V5000CGH had entered airworthiness certification after the February transition flight.

The V5000CGH and the V2000 family

AutoFlight’s May release lists the V5000CGH with a 5,700 kg maximum takeoff weight, a 1.5-ton payload, a 14 m³ cargo hold that fits two AKE containers, a cruise speed of 280 km/h (about 151 knots) and a range of 1,500 km. The company positions it for large-scale emergency rescue, offshore energy supply and inter-provincial heavy feeder logistics.

The smaller V2000CG CarryAll, one of the models in the November formation, has received the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) type, production and airworthiness certificates, according to the May release, which also said the V2000EM Prosperity passenger model was in compliance demonstration. AutoFlight said its airworthiness team has experience from the ARJ21-700, C919 and Diamond DA42 programmes.

What AutoFlight says comes next

AutoFlight said the five-aircraft flight lays technical groundwork for low-altitude transport networks covering long-haul, regional and last-mile routes. As part of its Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) development, the company said it is exploring ways to connect air and sea mobility using eVTOL aircraft and platforms such as Sunship.

In May, the company said it would continue airworthiness compliance work to speed V5000CGH testing, flight trials and certification. Neither the May nor the November release gives a target date for V5000CGH certification or names a launch operator for the type.

VÆRIDION has closed a €30 million Series A2 round to build the first conforming prototype of its nine-passenger, all-electric Microliner, and the European Commission has selected the company’s CAROLUS project for a €94.5 million Innovation Fund grant to set up final assembly at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport near Munich.

In a press release dated November 5, 2026, the Munich-based manufacturer put the combined equity and grant funding at more than €124 million. The two are separate: the equity pays for the first conforming aircraft and integrated battery and propulsion testing, while the grant agreement is expected to be signed in 2027, and the selection remains subject to its completion. VÆRIDION also said it now holds commitments for more than 130 aircraft, valued at more than €730 million.

Who is backing the Series A2

The equity round was led by a European consortium of SHIFT Invest and Invest-NL. Existing investors World Fund, Project A and Vsquared Ventures took part, along with PAYBACK founder Alexander Rittweger and others. Including this round and earlier public funding, VÆRIDION said it has raised about €60 million to date.

SHIFT Invest is an Amsterdam-based venture capital fund that has backed more than 70 startups since 2009, and its investors include KLM, Schiphol and TU Delft, according to the release. Invest-NL supports entrepreneurs and projects in the Netherlands. World Fund reports €300M in assets under management, Project A reports €1.2B, and Vsquared Ventures counts Isar Aerospace and The Exploration Company in its portfolio.

“Over the past year, we have turned the Microliner from a validated design into hardware, with exceptional capital efficiency.”

Ivor van Dartel, founder and CEO of VÆRIDION, said that propulsion and battery technology is being tested at the company’s Oberpfaffenhofen facility, that the equity enables the first conforming aircraft, and that the grant supports the industrial capability for Microliner production. Thijs Gitmans, general partner at SHIFT Invest, said: “Regional aviation is one of the clearest cases where electrification makes both environmental and commercial sense.” He added that the company “has chosen a certification pathway regulators already understand.”

The Innovation Fund grant behind CAROLUS

CAROLUS will establish and ramp up a final assembly facility at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport. VÆRIDION said the project was chosen from 358 applications as one of only 12 large-scale projects, that it is the only aviation project in that category, and that VÆRIDION is the only German company in it.

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Climate Action said on May 29, 2026, that the Innovation Fund 2025 Net-Zero Technologies call, launched on December 4, 2025, and closed on April 23, 2026, drew 358 applications requesting €17.5 billion against an earmarked budget of €2.9 billion. The money comes from revenues of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). The Commission has since announced that it selected 77 net-zero technology projects for €3.4 billion in funding from the call launched in December 2025.

The grant follows earlier EU support for the programme. On March 3, 2026, the European Investment Bank (EIB) said its advisers were helping VÆRIDION, under the EU Innovation Fund’s project development assistance, to prepare a detailed business plan, a financing structure and a risk analysis, with the aim of readying the project for future Innovation Fund applications and other funding.

Where the Microliner programme stands

Design and certification basis

VÆRIDION was founded in 2021, according to the EIB, and is headquartered in Munich with subsidiaries in Delft and Brussels. The clean-sheet Microliner has a glider-inspired wing, patented integrated modular batteries and a multi-engine, single-propeller propulsion system. It targets a range of 400 km (about 216 nautical miles) with nine passengers under Instrument Flight Rules (IFR), or up to 550 km (about 297 nautical miles) with four passengers under Visual Flight Rules (VFR). Passenger and cargo versions are planned, and the company says the aircraft can carry either nine passengers or 10 m³ of cargo.

The aircraft is being developed to EASA CS-23 requirements. In the past 12 months, VÆRIDION completed its Preliminary Design Review and a second Pre-Application Contract with EASA. AirPro News covered the Preliminary Design Review milestone in June, when the company passed 100 aircraft commitments. In March 2026, it opened its production and test facility at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport, where it has powered on its electric engine for the first time.

Next steps on the ground

Battery packs and the propulsion system will next be integrated on a ground-test rig the company calls the “copper bird.” That work, together with wind-tunnel testing, supports the first conforming Microliner and flight-test preparations. The aircraft is engineered in Munich and Delft and will be built in Bavaria. The EIB’s March release gave 2027 as the target for first flight and 2030 for the start of scheduled service after certification.

The regional market case

VÆRIDION argues that regional aviation is highly exposed to fuel price shocks, saying jet fuel prices more than doubled year-on-year by October 2026. The company said more than 21,000 small turboprops serve regional routes worldwide, with an average age of 23 years, and that no new aircraft of this size has entered service in 30 years. Citing the European Regions Airline Association (ERAA), it said about 120 regional routes in Europe were discontinued in the five years before June 2026.

The Microliner targets operating costs below €0.40 per seat-kilometre, which the company said would allow fares at first-class rail ticket levels. It also cites a McKinsey estimate that the global regional air mobility market could reach up to $115 billion by 2035. In the EIB’s March release, van Dartel said Europe already has 2,300 regional airports.

The commitments come from regional airlines, charter operators and lessors, with ASL Group as launch customer. KLM, BayernLB and TrueNoord support the company through its Market Advisory Committee. AirPro News has followed the aircraft since the Microliner programme launch.

Japanese advanced air mobility developer SkyDrive Inc. published a technical design concept paper on September 24, 2026, outlining the engineering rationale behind its compact, 12-rotor electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.

Announced via a company press release, the paper, titled “The eVTOL Safety Dilemma in Congested Urban Environments,” argues that multi-rotor architectures offer superior safety and efficiency for short-range urban operations compared to winged eVTOL configurations like tilt-rotor or lift-and-cruise designs.

Optimizing for low disk loading

SkyDrive designed its SD-05 model specifically for “last-mile” segments within a 30-kilometer (18-mile) radius of city centers. To operate safely in space-constrained urban settings, the manufacturer opted for a 12-rotor configuration. According to the design paper, this layout secures a large total disk area, achieving low disk loading.

Low disk loading improves hovering efficiency and power density. The company stated that this multi-rotor approach provides critical safety redundancy, ensuring single-failure tolerance during operations over densely populated areas. SkyDrive aims to provide “the most accessible air mobility, allowing people to take off directly from the city,” according to the press release.

Global expansion and certification progress

The publication of the design concept follows a series of regulatory and commercial milestones for the manufacturer, which targets a 2028 entry into commercial service. SkyDrive began production of its commercial eVTOL product at a Suzuki Motor Corporation plant in March 2024.

On July 16, 2026, the company commenced formal familiarization meetings with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB) to advance its type certification process.

The manufacturer has also expanded its prospective operational footprint through recent international agreements. On August 17, 2026, SkyDrive signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) with Gold Coast Helitours in Australia. This was followed by an August 25, 2026, partnership announcement with Air India and Suzuki to evaluate medical logistics routes in India. Most recently, on September 17, 2026, SkyDrive signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with South Korean operator Verty Co. Ltd. to prepare for commercial deployment.

AirPro News analysis

We observe a clear strategic divergence in the eVTOL sector between manufacturers pursuing winged lift-and-cruise or tilt-rotor designs and those committing to pure multi-rotor architectures. While winged designs from competitors target regional connectivity with higher cruise speeds and longer ranges, SkyDrive is optimizing strictly for the urban core. By eliminating the aerodynamic complexities of transitioning from vertical to forward wing-borne flight, the company may face a more straightforward path to type certification. However, this design choice inherently limits the aircraft to short-range, intra-city missions, requiring a high-volume operational model to achieve commercial viability.

Sources: SkyDrive Inc. (via Business Wire)