SkyDrive Inc., a leading Japanese eVTOL manufacturer, today announced that Arnaud Coville, an aviation industry veteran with 30 years of experience and former chief technical officer (CTO) of Volocopter GmbH, became the chief development officer (CDO) of SkyDrive. He joined SkyDrive on Jan. 1, 2023.

SkyDrive is currently engaged in the development of a compact, electric-powered aircraft named “SkyDrive SD-052.” The company reached a key milestone when the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau accepted its application for type certification of the SD-05 in October 2021. SkyDrive intends to use the SD-05 as a commercial passenger aircraft in the Osaka Bay area beginning in 2025.

Arnaud Coville holds a Ph.D. in automatic control and robotics, and has three decades of experience in the aircraft industry. At Airbus, he has been in various management positions responsible for the development of vehicles, systems and structures in programs of helicopters and large aircraft. At Volocopter, he has been responsible for organizing and growing the engineering organization and leading development projects as CTO. He will further accelerate the development of the SD-05 by leveraging his experiences in aircraft development at Airbus and leading eVTOL development at Volocopter.

Arnaud (CDO) will be the new leader of the development team to build SD-05, and Nobuo Kishi (CTO) will focus more on the type certification process. They will work closely together and aim for entering into service in 2025.

Arnaud Coville, CDO of SkyDrive Inc.: “I am proud to join SkyDrive as the company has big potential to play a leading role in the industry. I believe that my international expertise will contribute to growing its engineering team and accelerating the development of eVTOL aircraft. I look forward to working with all the SkyDrive teams to ensure that our first commercial model flying car, the SD-05, is a market success.”

Tomohiro Fukuzawa, CEO of SkyDrive Inc.: “We are thrilled to have Arnaud Coville as our CDO. He has gained remarkable management skills over the course of his career at major enterprises, as well as a startup. I firmly believe that his extensive experiences not only in conventional aircraft development but also in a new type of air mobility will be invaluable to us as we seek to take the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution from Japan.”

This press release was prepared and distributed by SkyDrive.