SkyDrive’s Flying Car Makes High-Speed Flight over the Seto Inland Sea

What the 86 km/h Flight Actually Proved

At about 8 a.m. on July 13, a white aircraft rose from the test site inside Yamaguchi Kirara Expo Memorial Park, the sound of 12 rotors merging above the shoreline. SkyDrive’s SD-05 carried neither pilot nor passenger. Under autonomous control and remote piloting, it traveled two kilometers in six minutes 20 seconds, reached 86 km/h and climbed to 30 meters. A second flight at about 11:05 a.m. covered 1.9 kilometers in five minutes 42 seconds, reaching 54 km/h and 25 meters.

Yamaguchi Governor Tsugumasa Muraoka, the vice chair of the prefectural assembly and Suzuki Motor President Toshihiro Suzuki—whose company is SkyDrive’s manufacturing partner—watched. The exercise also rehearsed the ground journey: a future customer arriving by car, transferring through a vertiport and boarding the aircraft. The test therefore edged beyond “Can it fly?” toward “Can this become a complete tourism experience?”

Precision matters. SkyDrive’s announcement says the operation simulated a scenic tour over the Seto Inland Sea. It was not a certified passenger service or a crewed island-to-island flight. Nor was 86 km/h a speed record: the aircraft had reached 100 km/h during June tests. The value was the combination of flight and operational rehearsal in an environment closer to a future commercial setting.

A “Flying Car” That Does Not Drive

Most machines called sora tobu kuruma—flying cars—in Japan are not road vehicles with folding wings. Legally they are aircraft. The more accurate international term is eVTOL: electric vertical takeoff and landing. They rise without a runway and use electric propulsion for relatively short flights.

The SD-05 is approximately 11.5 meters long, 11.3 meters wide and three meters high. It has three seats—one pilot and two passengers—a maximum takeoff weight of 1,400 kilograms, a published maximum cruise speed of 100 km/h and a stated range of 15 to 40 kilometers. It is a 12-rotor multicopter, not a winged aircraft optimized for long-range cruise. Compactness and mechanical simplicity may help it use smaller sites, but continuously producing lift with rotors imposes a harsh energy penalty.

From Volunteer Dream to Aircraft Manufacturer

The story predates the company. In 2014, volunteers from automotive, aerospace and manufacturing backgrounds began building prototypes as CARTIVATOR. SkyDrive was incorporated in July 2018. It reports completing Japan’s first crewed eVTOL test in 2019, followed in August 2020 by a public crewed flight of the single-seat SD-03. The few minutes of controlled flight transformed a speculative Japanese “flying car” into a visible machine.

Japan’s transport ministry accepted SkyDrive’s type-certificate application in October 2021—the first such project for a flying car in Japan. In 2023, SkyDrive enlarged the SD-05 concept from two seats to three. In March 2024, manufacturing subsidiary Sky Works began producing test aircraft at a Suzuki Group plant in Iwata, Shizuoka. The announced potential capacity was up to 100 aircraft a year, applying automotive lessons in lightness, repeatable quality and supply chains to aviation.

At Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai, the SD-05 flew before the public. That year the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau issued the G-1 certification basis defining the standards applicable to the aircraft. The more ambitious early vision of carrying Expo passengers did not materialize, but the demonstrations produced flight data and public exposure. In June 2026, SkyDrive reached 100 km/h and said it had completed 300 incident-free flights over 20 months. The Yamaguchi demonstration belongs to that progression—not its conclusion.

Why the Seto Inland Sea?

Setouchi is enclosed by Honshu, Shikoku and Kyushu, with more than 700 islands, sheltered water, working ports, bridges, sacred sites and a world-famous contemporary-art culture. The region became part of one of Japan’s first national parks in 1934. Its layered islands make the value of a short aerial tour immediately understandable.

Island mobility is not only picturesque. Ferries are essential but constrained by schedules, transfers, weather and the economics of sparse demand. An eVTOL need not replace a ferry to matter. It could complement existing transport for medical access, disaster response or high-value tourism. Scenic tours are a logical first market because the view itself earns revenue, routes can be repetitive and controlled, and customers pay for an experience rather than time savings alone.

Yet quietness is also part of the region’s product. Small rotors create a sound that communities judge not merely by peak decibels but by tone, repetition, time of day and flight frequency. Wildlife, temples, fishing activity and existing aviation must be considered. “Electric means quiet” is not evidence; route-specific measurement and local consent will be required.

The Real Barrier Is Certification, Not Speed

Permission to test an experimental aircraft is fundamentally different from type certification for carrying the public every day. Certification demands evidence that the design, structure, handling, software, batteries, lightning protection, fire protection, manufacturing system and maintenance instructions meet safety standards. Engineers must not merely hope a component will not fail. They must analyze what happens when it does, examine combinations of failures and prove the aircraft can reach a safe outcome.

Battery thermal runaway is especially serious. More battery can extend range, but added mass requires more energy to lift. Fast charging improves daily utilization while stressing temperature control and battery life. An operator needs more than a brochure’s maximum range: it needs usable range after reserves, headwinds, aging, heat and cold are included.

SkyDrive is working with JCAB and the U.S. FAA. The FAA has built operating and pilot rules for powered-lift, which it calls the first new aircraft category in nearly 80 years. Europe’s EASA created dedicated safety objectives for VTOL aircraft. The race is not only among manufacturers; regulators are developing a common language for machines that do not fit neatly into the historic airplane or helicopter boxes.

An Aircraft Is Not a Transportation System

A traveler buys a reliable journey, not an airframe. A vertiport needs a landing surface, obstacle control, charging, firefighting, evacuation, passenger handling, security and weather information. Airspace needs communications, flight plans and emergency routes. An operator needs certification, pilots, maintainers, dispatch, training and insurance.

This is why SkyDrive signed a July 2026 memorandum with Japan Biz Aviation, which operates HondaJets and Bell helicopters. SkyDrive says its order-related total stands at 427 aircraft—354 preorders and 73 basic purchase agreements—but many Japanese customers are railway or other nonaviation companies without an air operator certificate. A manufacturer cannot simply hand them the keys.

In Osaka, a public-private consortium is working to commercialize the Osakako Vertiport built for the Expo and is studying possible use of 146 emergency helicopter pads around the prefecture. A Kansai vision imagines roughly 100 eVTOLs around Osaka Bay by 2035. Tokyo is studying sites with final selection from fiscal 2028 onward. The Expo’s most valuable legacy may prove to be not a spectacular flight, but the unglamorous infrastructure, rules and trained people left behind.

The Numbers to Watch Before 2028

Before the Sky Becomes a Road

The Yamaguchi flight was neither the instant arrival of science fiction nor proof that aerial taxis will operate tomorrow. Its significance lies between those extremes. SkyDrive is trying to connect Japanese strengths in automotive manufacturing, light engineering, electrification, rail integration, tourism and regional policy into a new industry.

If it succeeds, several minutes of sightseeing above Setouchi could lead toward island medicine, emergency logistics and short urban links. Failure might not mean the aircraft cannot fly. Certification may take too long; two paying seats may cost too much; weather may cancel too many flights; communities may reject the sound; vertiports may be impossible to site. Transportation systems fail at their weakest link.

The Wright brothers’ 1903 flight was not an airline. Engines, materials, airports, radio, weather forecasting, air-traffic control, maintenance, regulation and public trust turned flight into infrastructure. SkyDrive’s “mobility revolution” faces the same lesson. More important than 86 km/h is an ordinary morning in 2028 when a booked passenger boards safely, returns on schedule and the aircraft does it again the next day. Only then will a flying car begin to feel like a car.