JAMCO Corporation (Head office: Tachikawa, Tokyo; President & CEO: Harutoshi Okita; hereafter JAMCO) announces that it has signed a Supporter Agreement with SkyDrive Inc. (Head office: Toyota, Aichi; President & CEO: Tomohiro Fukuzawa; hereafter SkyDrive), which develops flying cars*. JAMCO will begin the partnership by loaning its Aircraft Interiors development specialists to SkyDrive.
Through this partnership, JAMCO will offer SkyDrive its capabilities related to such things as the design and development of aircraft interiors, certification and aircraft operation, and maintenance. This will contribute to SkyDrive’s airframe and interior design work on the flying car it is currently developing for commercialization, as well as the vehicle’s certification. In this way JAMCO and SkyDrive will work together to achieve a society where air mobility is commonplace.
SkyDrive, established in July 2018 with a mission of “leading a once-in-a-century mobility revolution," is working to make flying cars commercially available to realize a future world where people can use air mobility as a means of transportation in their daily lives. In 2019, the company achieved Japan’s first-ever manned flight of a flying car, and it is currently working on a model that can seat two people. SkyDrive’s current aim is to launch a flying car service in the Osaka Bay area in 2025.
The JAMCO Group’s areas of business include the manufacture of passenger aircraft cabin interior products (including galleys, lavatories and seats) and carbon-fiber structural members, and the maintenance of various types of aircraft. The Group also possesses a wealth of knowledge and experience related to aircraft modification design, having been delegated by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to perform type and other certifications on its behalf at a facility owned by the Group in the U.S.
*Flying cars:
While there is no clear definition of what a flying car is, one notion is that of a vehicle that runs on electrical power, can fly automatically and take off and land vertically. In various countries around the world, where these vehicles are also referred to as electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft or urban air mobility (UAM), efforts are underway to develop them as a new form of mobility. Since 2018, Japan’s own efforts include holding regular meetings of the Public-Private Conference for Future Air Mobility Revolution, while its Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism have established a roadmap for the full-scale adoption of flying cars in Japan during the 2030s.
Photo of a flying car
- 拡大
- Credit: SkyDrive Inc.