SkyDrive has become the first dedicated electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft developer in Japan to receive Approved Design Organization certification from the country’s civil aviation authority.
The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau (JCAB), which operates under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), granted the approval to the Toyota-based manufacturer on April 15, 2026. The Approved Design Organization (ADO) status formally recognizes that a company has the quality control and safety management systems needed to conduct aircraft design and post-design inspection.
With the certification, SkyDrive joins a group of only six companies in Japan, otherwise made up of long-established aerospace manufacturers, authorized to carry out a portion of the airworthiness checks that would normally be performed by the regulator. The authority to self-verify is intended to shorten the type certification process.
Japan’s ADO framework is equivalent to the Design Organisation Approval issued by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) operated by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
SkyDrive is targeting commercial launch of its three-seat SD-05 eVTOL from 2028, having performed demonstration flights at the 2025 World Expo in Osaka. The company reached agreement with the JCAB on a general certification plan for the aircraft in March 2026, following issuance of a G-1 certification basis in February 2025.
SkyDrive submitted a type certificate application to the FAA through the JCAB in June 2024. The manufacturer plans to secure JCAB type certification first before pursuing validation in the United States.
The SD-05 is a lightweight multirotor aircraft designed for short-distance urban air taxi operations, tourism flights and emergency medical transport. It has a range of 25 miles (40km) and a top speed of 62mph (100km/h), and entered production in March 2024 at a facility operated by Suzuki Motor Corporation, SkyDrive’s official production partner.
