SkyDrive Signs Singapore R&D Pact With Six Tech Companies

SkyDrive signed a memorandum of understanding with six Singapore tech companies on October 29 to collaborate on advanced air mobility research and development. The collaborations reflect the companies’ capabilities as technology and supply chain partners, opening opportunities for them to participate in emerging global value chains and pursue new areas of growth, according to the announcement.

The Singapore pact fits SkyDrive’s wider pattern of building the ecosystem before the aircraft is certified. SkyDrive has separately launched a joint initiative with aviation, infrastructure, energy, tourism, finance and insurance companies in Japan’s Kansai region — led by MUFG Bank — to advance the commercial deployment of eVTOL aircraft in western Japan. Partnerships, not just prototypes, are how a small eVTOL maker assembles the maintenance, infrastructure and financing a real air taxi network needs.

SkyDrive is a Japanese compact eVTOL company aiming, in its own words, “to take the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution.” It began testing eVTOL prototypes in 2014, was incorporated in 2018, and in 2019 became the first company to fly a crewed eVTOL in Japan. In 2025 it showcased SKYDRIVE, its first commercial eVTOL product, with demonstration flights at the Osaka Expo witnessed by thousands of visitors over a month. Production began in March 2024 at a plant owned by Suzuki Motor Corporation, SkyDrive’s official production partner, and the company is working with civil aviation authorities in Japan and the United States toward launching the aircraft into service in 2028.