Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was among the high-ranking officials in attendance for a demonstration flight of Eve Air Mobility’s prototype air taxi, which the company this week said has completed 35 flights since its debut in December.
Joining Lula to watch the full-scale engineering prototype fly at Eve’s test facility in Brazil were the country’s minister of science, technology and innovation, minister of ports and airports, and Tiago Faierstein, president of the National Civil Aviation Agency of Brazil (ANAC)—Eve’s chief regulatory partner. Also present was the president of Brazil’s National Development Bank, which has supplied Eve with more than $250 million since 2022.
Faierstein in September told Reuters that certifying Eve’s air taxi is ANAC’s top priority. The “goal,” he said, is to beat the Embraer subsidiary’s type certification target of 2027.
“We are advancing with discipline and consistency in our flight test campaign, reducing risk and building the foundation for future certification flights,” Johann Bordais, CEO of Eve, said in a statement.
American regulators have shown similar interest in boosting electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi technology like the aircraft Eve is building.
In 2025, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that directed the U.S. Transportation Department and FAA to launch an eVTOL and Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Integration Pilot Program—or eIPP, for short. The three-year initiative comprises eight projects across 26 states and will begin testing of air taxis, electric regional aircraft, autonomous aircraft, and other AAM technologies as soon as this summer.
American air taxi developers were influential in the U.S. AAM National Strategy, a whole-of-government blueprint containing steps to integrate novel aircraft into the National Airspace System (NAS). Eve similarly is one of the stakeholders informing Brazil’s Ministry of Ports and Airports’ National Urban Air Mobility Policy.
The regulator will keep a close eye on the company’s test program, which could inform the way it certifies an aircraft that may one day fly in United Airlines’ fleet. Eve and United in 2023 announced plans for San Francisco Bay Area commuter flights.
Eve’s Air Taxi Progress
Eve’s flagship model will be piloted at launch with space for up to four passengers and standard carry-on luggage. Future variants could be autonomous and accommodate up to six people. Range at entry into service will be about 60 miles, limiting it to short hops. But according to Eve, it will have a cost-per-seat six times lower than helicopters.
The air taxi’s electric propulsion system was developed through a joint venture between Embraer and Japan’s Nidec Motor Corp. An electric pusher propeller will be powered by dual electric motors from Beta Technologies.
But unlike most American air taxi designs, Eve’s does not include tilting propellers. Instead, eight four-bladed, vertical propellers provide lift, with cruise supported by the pusher propeller and a rigid overhead wing. The wing has distributed rotors, no flaps, and a single actuator and aileron on each side.
Controls comprise a fly-by-wire system, four-axis sidestick, and Garmin G3000 Integrated Flight Deck, supported by navigation systems from Honeywell. A joint venture between Embraer and CAE will train Eve pilots.
Eve is conducting initial flight testing with an engineering prototype—a full-scale, nonconforming variant of the model it aims to certify with ANAC and the FAA. The prototype is remotely piloted and has simpler systems than the company’s production model. But per Luiz Valentini, Eve’s chief technology officer, it is “very representative with respect to the dynamics of flight [and] noise characteristics.”
Valentini in December said the plan is for “hundreds of flights throughout 2026” as Eve aims to transition from hover to wingborne flight testing.
December marked the company’s first prototype test flight, which was uncrewed and lasted about one minute. The flight collected data on the airframe design, control laws, propulsion system, and vertical lift rotors, in addition to gauging energy management and noise footprint. It also validated the integration of Embraer’s fifth-generation, fly-by-wire system, which powers some of the company’s other airframes such as the E2 and KC-135.
Eve on Wednesday said it has racked up about 1.5 hours of flight time across 35 tests since December, gradually expanding the envelope. The company said the prototype has flown as high as 140 feet in low-speed testing up to 15 knots, intended to validate control laws, aerodynamic efficiency, and conduct other initial checkouts.
Eve said the aircraft has demonstrated “consistent flight behavior under the tested conditions, including maneuvers with simultaneous inputs across three axes.”
“Preliminary results indicate efficiency gains, with propulsion and battery performance above initial expectations, while noise levels remain within projections, significantly lower than those of conventional helicopters,” it said Wednesday.
The Embraer subsidiary plans to conduct testing at higher speeds up to 30 knots in the coming days. In addition to the engineering prototype, it will build five conforming prototypes that more closely resemble the model it seeks to operate.
“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,” Bordais said.
In addition to United’s conditional purchase of 200 air taxis and 200 options, SkyWest in 2021 signed a nonbinding letter of intent for up to 100 aircraft. At last year’s Paris Air Show, Eve said it had about 2,800 aircraft preorders, most of them nonbinding or conditional.
