SkyDrive, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Mitsubishi Estate and Kanematsu to Conduct eVTOL Demo Flight at Tokyo Big Sight

TOYOTA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb 4, 2026--

SkyDrive Inc. (“SkyDrive”), a leading eVTOL (*1) aircraft manufacturer based in Japan, is pleased to announce that it will conduct demo flights of its "SKYDRIVE" (SkyDrive Model SD-05) over the five days between February 24 (Tue) and February 28 (Sat), 2026. This initiative is being organized in collaboration with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., and Kanematsu Corporation. The flights will take place at a temporary take-off and landing site located in the outdoor parking lot of Tokyo Big Sight’s East Wing. This event will mark SkyDrive's first-ever demo flight in the city of Tokyo.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260203583607/en/

We are also inviting applications from members of the public to help us monitor our passenger experience. While the actual flights will not carry passengers, the chosen applicants will test the boarding process at a dedicated terminal facility equipped with facial recognition technology, helping us to craft a smooth and efficient flow for future eVTOL passengers.

The demo flight and the passenger terminal facility will be open to the public for viewing.

This initiative is part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Project for Developing Business Models for eVTOL (Flying Car) Services in Tokyo.” (*2)

Demo Flight Details

The demo flight will operate from a dedicated take-off and landing site in the outdoor temporary parking lot by the East Wing of Tokyo Big Sight, an iconic Tokyo landmark. The planned flight path is a circular route that will either remain within the parking lot premises or extend from the landing site over the sea.

The demo flight will feature the "SKYDRIVE" (SkyDrive Model SD-05), the same model flown by SkyDrive at the Expo 2025 event in Osaka and also at the nearby OsakaKo Vertiport (*3). The aircraft will be operated without an on-board pilot, using a combination of automated control and remote pilot technology to ensure the highest standards of flight safety.

Call for Participants: Passenger Experience Trials

SkyDrive is recruiting members of the public to help us monitor our passenger experience and verify the operational efficiency of our eVTOL passenger terminals.

The objective of this trial is for participants to experience core elements of the passenger journey using advanced technologies such as facial recognition. The feedback gathered will be instrumental in refining our services and operations as we lay the groundwork for the future introduction of safe, fast and convenient urban air mobility.

Public Viewing of the Passenger Terminal

The venue will be open to all members of the public from 8:30 AM to 5:30 PM throughout the flight demonstration period. You do not need to join the monitor program to look inside. However, please be aware that viewing of the terminal interior will be restricted during the following time slots:

The operations room for controlling our demo flights will be open for viewing as per the schedule below.

*When inside the operations room, please do not take any photographs or touch any equipment.

Background

SkyDrive is developing eVTOLs with a mission to "lead the once-in-a-century mobility revolution." As we target a launch of commercial operations in 2028, our goal is to make urban air travel a regular feature of city life.

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is actively supporting the development of the eVTOL industry in the belief that robust eVTOL infrastructure and reliable eVTOL services will revolutionize the movement of people and goods in Tokyo, enhancing residents’ quality of life. As part of its efforts to accelerate the development of this new generation of aviation technology, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, in FY2025, launched the "eVTOL Implementation Project", which aims to roll out commercial flight operations in urban areas by 2030. The Bureau of Digital Services, a central government organization, also provided support to private enterprises from FY2022 to FY2024 to assist in the development of business models that could help achieve the early commercialization of eVTOL services in the airspace above the capital.

Since 2022, Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. and Kanematsu Corporation have been validating business models and conducting technical verifications to assess the feasibility of various passenger eVTOL services. These studies, which are designed to pave the way for the use of air taxis in and around Tokyo, include potential routes between the rooftop of the Shin-Marunouchi Building in central Tokyo and destinations along Tokyo Bay.

In collaboration with UK-based Skyports, a global leader in vertiport infrastructure, SkyDrive aims to set up a vertiport in Tokyo equipped with a Vertiport Automation System (VAS). SkyDrive plans to present demonstration flights of its aircraft at this vertiport in collaboration with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Mitsubishi Estate, and Kanematsu. The objective of this flight is to validate ground and flight operations including take-off and landing management and simulation, passenger check-in and security screening, and monitoring of the airspace around the flight route to ensure safety. Identifying the practical challenges of an eVTOL business in Tokyo will help us deliver steady progress toward resolving these issues and launching viable urban air mobility services that serve Japan’s capital.

Roles

Notes:

*1 SkyDrive is developing eVTOLs with the mission of "leading the once-in-a-century mobility revolution," Our goal is to enhance public understanding of the eVTOL industry and drive towards a future in which short-hop eVTOL travel is just another regular way of getting around. At the Expo 2025 Osaka, we conducted a demonstration flight of the "SKYDRIVE" (SkyDrive Model SD-05).

*2 Tokyo Metropolitan Government “Project for Developing Business Models for eVTOL (Flying Car) Services in Tokyo.” https://www.metro.tokyo.lg.jp/information/press/2025/05/2025053014

*3 SkyDrive related press releases
https://en.skydrive2020.com/archives/16094
https://en.skydrive2020.com/archives/16771

About SkyDrive Inc.

SkyDrive is a Japanese eVTOL company aiming “to take the lead in the once-in-a-century mobility revolution”. The company began testing eVTOL prototypes in 2014 prior to official incorporation in 2018. Under its future vision for urban transportation, flying in eVTOLs will become a regular part of city life. In 2019, SkyDrive became the first company to fly a crewed eVTOL in Japan. In 2025, the company successfully showcased the eVTOL "SKYDRIVE", the company’s first eVTOL product, with demonstration flights at the Osaka Expo witnessed by thousands of visitors over a one-month period. SkyDrive began production of “SKYDRIVE” in March 2024 at a plant owned by Suzuki Motor Corporation, SkyDrive's official production partner. SkyDrive has been working with civil aviation authorities in Japan and the US to obtain certification for “SKYDRIVE”, with the aim of launching the aircraft into service in 2028. SkyDrive is headquartered in Toyota, Aichi Prefecture, and led by CEO Tomohiro Fukuzawa, an engineer and entrepreneur.

For more information, please visit: https://en.skydrive2020.com/

Bird’s eye rendering of the event venue *This image combines photography with rendered elements. The actual layout of the event venue and surroundings may differ.

SkyDrive, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Mitsubishi Estate and Kanematsu to Conduct eVTOL Demo Flight at Tokyo Big Sight

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Hold on to those Thanksgiving turkeys! WKRP is coming to Cincinnati — for real this time.

“I cannot, by contract, tell you when. I cannot tell you who. But I can tell you, direct to the camera, WKRP, after 48 years, is coming to Cincinnati,” D.P. McIntire, who runs the media nonprofit that is auctioning the famous call letters, told The Associated Press. “Book it! It’s done!”

The call sign was made famous by “WKRP in Cincinnati,” a CBS television sitcom that ran from 1978 to 1982. It made stars of actors like Loni Anderson and Richard Sanders, whose bumbling newsman Les Nessman reported on a Thanksgiving promotion gone bad when live but flightless turkeys were dropped from a helicopter.

McIntire remembers watching the show’s first episode — featuring disc jockeys Dr. Johnny Fever (Howard Hesseman) and Venus Flytrap (Tim Reid) — in the living room with his parents and older sister.

“And at the end of the 30-minute episode,” he said, “I got up and I proclaimed, `I’m going to be in radio. And if I ever have the opportunity, I’m going to run a station called WKRP.’”

McIntire said he got his first on-air job at 13 as a news anchor at WNQQ “Wink FM” in Blairsville, Pennsylvania.

Fast forward to 2014, when his North Carolina-based nonprofit acquired the call sign from the Federal Communications Commission. Stations in Dallas, Georgia, and Alexandria, Tennessee, previously bore the letters.

McIntire laughs as he recalls his chat with a woman in the agency’s audio division.

He had two sets of call letters in mind. She told him he needed a third.

“Being the jokester that I am, I said, `Well, if you need three, and if it’s available, we’ll take WKRP,’” he said. “And 90 seconds later, she came back and she said, `Mr. McIntire. Congratulations. You’re the general manager of WKRP in Raleigh, North Carolina.’”

WKRP-LP — 101.9 on the FM dial — went live Nov. 30, 2015. The LP stands for “low power,” a class of station created to serve more local audiences that didn’t want mass-market content.

“Our format is what radio used to be 35 years ago in small-town America,” he said. "There is Greats of the ‘80s, Sounds of the ’70s, '90s Rewind," as well as local news and “specialty programming.”

LPFM is restricted to nonprofit organizations like his Oak City Media, and it’s definitely local.

“Your broadcast capacity is limited to 100 watts,” McIntire said. “So, your average range is between, depending on your terrain and circumstances, 4 and 12 miles (6 and 19 kilometers) in any direction. Enough to cover a small town.”

And, by necessity, it’s a low-budget affair.

The transmitter is in a corner of McIntire’s garage, between a recycling bin and the cleaning supplies. The broadcast antenna sits atop a 25-foot (7.62-meter) metal flagpole in the backyard. The studio — microphones and a mixing board hooked up to a computer — is on the first floor of McIntire’s home.

Like the WKRP of television, McIntire and his partners set out to be “irreverent.” One of their offerings is a two-hour show called “Weird Al and Friends,” focusing on the satirical works of Weird Al Yankovic.

They even had an annual Thanksgiving turkey giveaway. But don’t call the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals — they hand out gift certificates to a local grocery store.

“We don’t toss them out of helicopters,” he said with a laugh.

This news comes hot on the heels of the decision to shutter CBS News Radio after nearly a century in operation. After more than a decade on the air, the 56-year-old McIntire decided it was time to pass the reins.

“We’re in a position where the older members like me who started the station are turning the leadership over to younger members,” he said. “They’re not interested in radio.”

They put out a call for bids to use the call letters on FM and AM radio, as well as television and digital television.

They intend to use the proceeds for a new nonprofit venture called Independent Broadcast Consultants. He said IBC will be “geared specifically toward helping these new broadcasters get up and running, get the consulting that they need in order to be, hopefully, more successful than we have been.”

Oak City Media was all set to hand off the television-related suffixes — WKRP-TV and WKRP-DT — when another group defaulted on the agreement, McIntire said. But he said the Cincinnati deal is in the bag, he just can’t legally discuss it.

“It will be radio,” he said. “But that’s all I can tell you at this time.”

Robert Thompson, who uses a season 2 episode of “WKRP” in his TV history class at Syracuse University, said it’s telling that people see real value in a fictional station whose call letters invoke the word “crap.”

“The value comes from the love of the characters for each other,” he said. “And now by buying this thing, the value comes from our love of the characters themselves.”

Whatever they do with the call sign, McIntire hopes they will be true to the show that inspired it.

“It has a special place in the hearts of an awful lot of people,” he said. “And we have been very, very, very proud to have been a steward of that legacy.”

This story has been updated to correct that the studio is on the first floor of the home, not the basement.

D.P. McIntire leans against a deck beneath the WKRP radio antenna in the backyard of his home in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

D.P. McIntire points to the transmitter for WKRP radio in a corner of his garage in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

The WKRP radio antenna sits atop a 25-foot flagpole behind D.P. McIntire's home in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

A photo of the cast members of the sitcom "WKRP in Cincinnati" sits in a window at the home of D.P. McIntire in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)

D.P. McIntire stands beneath a WKRP banner in the backyard of his home in Raleigh, N.C., on Thursday, April 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Allen G. Breed)