Chinese eVTOL Prosperity completes first autonomous flight in Kazakhstan

A Chinese-built electric air taxi completed its first test flight in Kazakhstan last week, while Western rivals are still waiting on FAA and EASA certification. AutoFlight's Prosperity aircraft flew a 10-minute autonomous loop over the Kazanat hippodrome in Astana, covering 2.4 km without a pilot on board. The flight was uncrewed for safety reasons, though the aircraft is designed to carry a pilot and up to four passengers.

The aircraft

Prosperity uses a lift-and-cruise layout: ten electric rotors handle vertical takeoff and landing, while three pusher propellers drive forward flight. That gives it 13 motors in total — a redundant architecture that keeps it airborne even if several motors fail simultaneously. Top speed is 200 km/h, and AutoFlight quotes a range of up to 250 km on a single charge, figures that compare well against US rival Joby Aviation's S4 (150 mph, 150-mile range).

The Astana demo was organized in partnership with local operator Alatau Advance Air Group. AutoFlight previously set a record crossing between Shenzhen and Zhuhai in China, and the Kazakhstan test appears to be part of a broader strategy to validate the platform across different climates and geographies before pushing into larger markets.

The regulatory gap

Where this gets interesting is certification. AutoFlight's Type Certificate application was accepted by China's CAAC in April 2024 — putting it ahead of Joby and Archer, both of which are targeting FAA approval no earlier than 2026. The company also re-established a German engineering team in 2022 aimed at EASA certification, though that timeline has slipped well past its original 2025 target.

Testing in Kazakhstan, which sits outside both FAA and EASA jurisdiction, lets AutoFlight accumulate real-world flight data without the stringent failure-rate demands of Western regulators. EASA's Enhanced category — required for commercial passenger operations in urban areas — sets a catastrophic failure threshold of one in a billion flight hours.

The Kazakhstan flight was confirmed by the country's Civil Aviation Committee. No commercial service date or vertiport infrastructure has been announced for the region, so this remains a demonstration. Still, it puts AutoFlight's real-world flight count ahead of several Western competitors that are still running simulations.