Skyfly Technologies
British developer of electric and hybrid-electric vertical-capable aircraft for personal, air-taxi, and defense use.
Website: https://skyflytech.com/about/
Cover Block
From the public record
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Skyfly Technologies |
| Tagline | British developer of electric and hybrid-electric vertical-capable aircraft for personal, air-taxi, and defense use. [sesamers.com] |
| Headquarters | London, England [rocketreach.co, 2026] |
| Founded | 2019 [sesamers.com] |
| Stage | Seed [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] |
| Business model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry | Deeptech |
| Technology type | Hardware |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding team | Co-Founders (2): Michael Thompson, Jaap Rademaker [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Crunchbase] |
| Funding label | Seed |
| Total disclosed funding | $10,000,000 [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] |
Links
From the public record
- Website: https://skyfly.aero/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyfly-technologies-ltd
The Short Version
PUBLIC Skyfly Technologies is a London-based aircraft developer building electric and hybrid-electric vertical-capable aircraft, and it merits investor attention now because it has paired fresh seed funding with public progress on flight testing and a growing stated order book for its lead product, the Axe [sesamers.com] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [AOPA, Jan 2026]. Founded in 2019, the company has positioned itself against a crowded eVTOL narrative by aiming first at personal aviation rather than a full urban air mobility network, a narrower commercial wedge that is easier to underwrite if certification and delivery timing hold [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [sesamers.com]. Its core platform is the two-seat Axe, described as a fixed-wing aircraft with vertical capability for private pilots, while a second program, Longbow, extends the propulsion stack into defense and government use cases through a hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft concept [sesamers.com] [resiliencemedia.co].
Management visibility is still uneven in public sources, but Michael Thompson is consistently identified as co-founder and CEO, and Jaap Rademaker is publicly tied to the business as co-founder and shareholder, with some sources also identifying him in a commercial leadership role [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Crunchbase] [skyfly.aero, 2026]. Skyfly's financing story is clearer: Vertical Magazine reported a $10 million seed round in October 2026 led by HICO Investment Group with participation from Archangel, while earlier reporting in January 2025 referenced an undisclosed funding event intended to expand engineering and propulsion development [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025]. The business model appears to combine aircraft sales with propulsion system commercialization, since AeroTime reported that Skyfly plans to offer the electric propulsion system developed for the Axe to other manufacturers [aerotime.aero, Jul 2026].
The near-term watch items are straightforward. Investors should track whether FAA experimental flight-testing momentum translates into a credible path to certification and whether delivery guidance, variously cited as late 2026 or 2027 across sources, converges rather than slips again [KITPLANES] [avweb.com, 2026] [Dealroom.co] [AOPA, Jan 2026]. Order-book claims have moved from 35 aircraft in January 2025 to 61 private customers by October 2026, but those figures remain largely company-sourced, so the central diligence question over the next 12 to 18 months is conversion quality, not just reservation count [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026].
Unconfirmed -- This section relies materially on company statements and press coverage that often reprints company claims, with only partial corroboration from third-party profiles and trade publications.
Taxonomy Snapshot
| Axis | Value |
|---|---|
| Stage | Seed |
| Business Model | Hardware + Software |
| Industry / Vertical | Deeptech |
| Technology Type | Hardware |
| Geography | Western Europe |
| Growth Profile | Venture Scale |
| Founding Team | Co-Founders (2) |
| Funding | Seed, total disclosed approximately $10,000,000 [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] |
The Company in Brief
PUBLIC
Skyfly Technologies presents as a London-based aircraft developer working on a narrower, more concrete wedge than much of the broader eVTOL field: a two-seat personal aircraft first, with adjacent defense applications following from the same propulsion and airframe workstreams [Crunchbase] [GOV.UK] [skyfly.aero]. Public records place the company in London, England, and Crunchbase lists its founding year as 2019 [Crunchbase]. The legal entity appears in U.K. Companies House records as Skyfly Technologies Ltd, which anchors the business in a verifiable corporate filing rather than only product marketing pages [GOV.UK].
The chronology is still relatively light in public filings, but a few milestones are clear enough to frame the company’s development path. Crunchbase identifies Michael Thompson and Jaap Rademaker as founders, while the company’s own site centers the Axe as its lead program and separately references the Longbow as a hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft effort [Crunchbase] [skyfly.aero]. By 2026, the company was also publicly stating that the Axe prototype had received FAA experimental permission for piloted flights in the United States, which matters less as a commercial milestone than as evidence that Skyfly had moved beyond concept-stage positioning into formal flight-test activity [skyfly.aero].
What remains consistent across these sources is the basic corporate shape: a seed-stage U.K. deeptech company building electric and hybrid-electric vertical-capable aircraft, with one flagship civil platform and one defense-oriented unmanned program under the same brand [Crunchbase] [skyfly.aero]. What is less clear from filings alone is the pace of certification, production readiness, and organizational scale, so the public record supports the company’s existence and product direction more confidently than it supports execution claims [Crunchbase] [GOV.UK] [skyfly.aero].
Single-source, plausible -- Confirmed in part by Crunchbase, GOV.UK company records, and the company website; several milestone details rely on company-published materials.
What They Have Built
MIXED
Skyfly is building around a narrower, more concrete use case than much of the eVTOL field: a two-seat aircraft meant first for personal ownership, not a full urban air-mobility network. Public materials describe the Axe as a fixed-wing, vertical-capable aircraft designed to be flown on a private pilot licence, with the company positioning it for private owners while also citing air-taxi and flight-training applications [sesamers.com] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026]. The same public record shows a long-running certification and delivery timeline that has moved over time, from earlier references to 2024 and 2026 deliveries to a 2027 target in the company’s October 2026 financing announcement [New Atlas] [AOPA, Jan 2026] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026].
The evidence for technical progress is strongest around flight-test permissions rather than customer operations. Multiple sources report that the Axe prototype, serial number 001, received FAA experimental approval or permit status for piloted flight testing in the United States, while AOPA reported that the aircraft operates under the U.K.’s Permit to Fly framework and the U.S. experimental category [KITPLANES] [AVweb, 2026] [eVTOL Insights, 2026] [AOPA, Jan 2026]. That matters because it confirms a test article moving through recognized regulatory channels, but it does not by itself establish certification readiness, production maturity, or commercial service capability.
Skyfly is also extending its propulsion work beyond the core aircraft, although the public record here is still mostly company-led. Coverage in 2026 said Skyfly planned to offer the electric propulsion system developed for the Axe to other manufacturers, and separately introduced a hybrid-electric propulsion system for unmanned aircraft using distributed electric propulsion [AeroTime, Jul 2026]. In parallel, outside coverage describes Longbow as a hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft aimed at defense and government users, with range enabled by the hybrid system [resiliencemedia.co]. The one hiring signal surfaced publicly, a Mechanical Design Engineer listing, is consistent with an in-house airframe and systems build effort [PUBLIC] [huntukvisasponsors.com].
Unconfirmed -- This section relies materially on company statements and press-release-style coverage, with partial corroboration from AOPA, KITPLANES, AVweb, and eVTOL Insights on FAA experimental flight-test status.
Market Size and Demand
PUBLIC
This market matters now because Skyfly is trying to sell into a part of advanced air mobility that is narrower, and in some respects more reachable, than the urban air-taxi thesis that dominated the category a few years ago.
The public record here is thin on formal market sizing, so the analysis has to stay close to what the sources actually show. Skyfly is positioning the Axe first for private owners, with air-taxi operators and flight-training organizations as secondary customer sets, according to Sesamers' company profile and management-linked coverage in Vertical Magazine [sesamers.com] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026]. That matters because personal aviation and training are adjacent to existing general aviation purchasing behavior, whereas large-scale urban air mobility depends on denser infrastructure, airline-like operations, and a more mature certification path. In other words, the addressable market described in public sources is better read as a slice of recreational, owner-operated, and light commercial aviation than as a broad city-to-city transport market [sesamers.com] [AOPA, Jan 2026].
A simple way to frame TAM, SAM, and SOM is through analogous markets rather than asserted market size. The total addressable market, on the evidence available, is analogous to small-aircraft personal mobility and light commercial aviation, plus a separate unmanned defense segment for Longbow, since Skyfly is also developing a hybrid-electric uncrewed aircraft for defense and government customers [resiliencemedia.co] [aerotime.aero, Jul 2026]. The serviceable available market is narrower still: aircraft that can be operated under current private-pilot or experimental frameworks in the U.K. and U.S., because the Axe is described as a two-seat vehicle flown on a private pilot licence and operating under the U.K.'s Permit to Fly and U.S. experimental category [sesamers.com] [AOPA, Jan 2026]. The serviceable obtainable market is narrower again, and the company-reported order book gives a directional ceiling on near-term demand rather than a market-wide measure.
| Market lens | Public evidence | Read-through for Skyfly |
|---|---|---|
| Analogous TAM | Personal aviation, light commercial aviation, and training use cases cited for Axe [sesamers.com] | Suggests the initial market is owner-operator and small-fleet aviation, not mass transit |
| Adjacent TAM | Defense and government unmanned aircraft use cases cited for Longbow [resiliencemedia.co] [aerotime.aero, Jul 2026] | Creates a second market track, but one with different buyers, budgets, and procurement cycles |
| Near-term SOM signal | 35 aircraft on order book in January 2025 [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025]; 57 customer orders reported by Aviation Week [Aviation Week]; 61 private customers on order book in October 2026 [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] | Indicates some reservation demand, but all disclosed figures are company-linked and should not be read as delivered volume |
The pattern in the disclosed figures is directionally positive, from 35 aircraft on the order book in January 2025 to 61 private customers reported in October 2026, with Aviation Week separately reporting 57 customer orders [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [Aviation Week]. Still, these are better treated as early market signals than firm proof of broad category adoption.
Demand drivers in the sources are practical rather than speculative. Skyfly's pitch emphasizes personal vertical flight, private ownership, and training use cases, which aligns with buyers who may value runway flexibility, storage footprint, or novelty without needing a full urban network to exist first [sesamers.com] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026]. The defense-side Longbow program points to another tailwind: hybrid-electric propulsion can matter where range and distributed electric propulsion are useful, and Skyfly has separately stated it will offer the electric propulsion system developed for the Axe to other manufacturers, which hints at an adjacent component-supply opportunity if aircraft certification takes longer than expected [aerotime.aero, Jul 2026].
The substitute markets are also clear. For personal aviation buyers, conventional light aircraft and helicopters remain the most direct alternatives, since they already have established certification, service networks, and operating practices. For commercial operators, existing flight-training aircraft and rotorcraft set the baseline. For defense and government buyers, Longbow would compete less with crewed eVTOL concepts than with the broader field of unmanned aircraft that already offer longer endurance or simpler procurement paths. None of that rules out adoption, but it does mean Skyfly is selling against incumbent categories that are familiar and serviceable today [AOPA, Jan 2026] [resiliencemedia.co].
Regulation is the main external force shaping timing. The public sources repeatedly anchor Skyfly's progress to experimental permits and future certification milestones: the Axe prototype received FAA experimental approval for piloted U.S. flight testing, and Aviation Week reported that the 2026 seed funding is intended to support FAA Part 22 approval as a light-sport aircraft [KITPLANES] [avweb.com, 2026] [Aviation Week]. Delivery timing has also moved across sources, from expectations around 2024 and 2026 in earlier coverage to 2027 in the 2026 funding announcement, which is typical of the category and a reminder that certification schedules, not just demand, will determine market capture [newatlas.com] [AOPA, Jan 2026] [Dealroom.co] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026]. In market terms, the tailwind is that regulators are at least providing experimental pathways; the constraint is that commercialization still depends on moving from prototype operations to certifiable, repeatable production.
Unconfirmed -- This section relies primarily on company-linked and single-source public claims, with no independently cited third-party market-size report and limited corroboration beyond trade coverage.
Who Else Is Fighting for This
MIXED Skyfly is positioning the Axe less as a node in a dense urban air-mobility network and more as a personal aircraft for licensed private owners, which places it on a different competitive axis from many better-known eVTOL programs [sesamers.com] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026].
The public record here is thinner than it should be for a full competitor map, and that matters. On the evidence available, Skyfly sits between three competitive sets: conventional light aircraft that already serve private pilots, higher-complexity eVTOL developers pursuing commercial air-taxi missions, and unmanned aircraft suppliers that compete with the company’s Longbow defense concept [sesamers.com] [resiliencemedia.co].
That positioning cuts both ways. Against incumbent light-aircraft options, Skyfly appears to be selling novelty, vertical-capable operation, and electric or hybrid-electric propulsion, but the public sources here do not establish price, certification status at production scale, or operating economics well enough to show a decisive commercial advantage [sesamers.com] [AOPA, Jan 2026] [Dealroom.co]. Against air-taxi focused challengers, the company may benefit from choosing a narrower entry point, private ownership and personal aviation, where infrastructure and dispatch density are less central to the initial sale [sesamers.com] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026]. That edge is potentially durable if customer demand proves real, but it is also perishable because it still rests largely on company-reported order-book figures rather than independently corroborated deliveries or in-service utilization [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Aviation Week].
The strongest defensible edge visible in public sources is regulatory and product simplicity relative to larger network-oriented eVTOL ambitions. The Axe is described as a two-seat aircraft intended to be flown on a private pilot licence, and public reports indicate it has received FAA experimental approval for piloted U.S. flight testing while also operating under the U.K. Permit to Fly regime [sesamers.com] [KITPLANES] [avweb.com, 2026] [AOPA, Jan 2026]. That does not amount to full certification, but it does suggest Skyfly is trying to compete where approval, pilot training, and customer onboarding may be more tractable than a multi-passenger urban air-taxi launch. The same advantage could weaken quickly if better-capitalized aircraft makers decide that owner-flown electric aircraft is an attractive interim market, since public evidence does not yet show Skyfly controlling a proprietary distribution channel, exclusive customer base, or manufacturing scale [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026].
The company is most exposed where capital depth and certification endurance matter. Publicly, Skyfly disclosed a $10 million seed round led by HICO Investment Group with participation from Archangel, and earlier funding in January 2025 was described without an amount [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025]. That is meaningful at prototype and early certification stage, but modest by aerospace standards, particularly for a business spanning both a crewed aircraft program and a defense-oriented hybrid-electric uncrewed platform [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [resiliencemedia.co] [aerotime.aero, Jul 2026]. In practice, Skyfly may be strongest against small experimental-aircraft substitutes and weakest against any scaled aviation OEM or well-funded advanced air mobility developer that can absorb longer certification timelines.
Over the next 18 months, the most plausible competitive outcome is not outright winner-take-all but a sorting process by certifiability and funded persistence. Skyfly is the most plausible winner if the owner-pilot segment proves to be the first commercially workable beachhead for vertical-capable electric aircraft and if its FAA experimental progress converts into credible delivery timing by 2027 [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [AOPA, Jan 2026] [avweb.com, 2026]. Skyfly is the most plausible loser if the category shifts back toward conventional aircraft substitutes on one side and better-funded certified platforms on the other, leaving a narrow middle where prototype visibility and order-book claims do not convert into delivered aircraft [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [Dealroom.co].
Opportunity
PUBLIC
If Skyfly executes, the prize is not simply selling a niche aircraft, it is establishing one of the first scaled consumer and light-commercial franchises in vertical-capable aviation, with a second leg in defense propulsion and uncrewed systems [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [AeroTime, Jul 2026] [resiliencemedia.co].
The clearest upside case is that Skyfly becomes the reference brand for privately owned vertical-capable aircraft before the broader air-taxi market matures. The public record supports that framing more than a generic eVTOL pitch: the Axe is positioned for private pilots rather than a citywide network rollout, Skyfly had an order book of 35 aircraft by January 2025, and later said it had 61 private customers on the order book by October 2026 [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026]. That does not prove conversion, deliveries, or retention, but it does suggest there is real demand for a simpler wedge into the category, especially if certification and production advance on the revised 2027 delivery timetable cited by Dealroom and Vertical Magazine [Dealroom.co] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026].
A second reason the opportunity is reachable rather than purely aspirational is that Skyfly is not relying on a single market surface. Public sources point to three adjacent routes: personal aircraft sales through the Axe, training or light-commercial use cases also discussed around the Axe, and a defense-government program in the hybrid-electric Longbow uncrewed aircraft [sesamers.com] [resiliencemedia.co]. AeroTime also reported in July 2026 that Skyfly plans to offer the propulsion system developed for the Axe to other manufacturers, which, if executed, would widen the company from airframe seller to subsystem supplier [AeroTime, Jul 2026].
| Scenario | What happens | Catalyst | Why it's plausible |
|---|---|---|---|
| Personal aviation beachhead | Skyfly becomes an early category leader in owner-operated vertical-capable aircraft, selling first to private pilots and specialty buyers before broader commercial adoption | Customer deliveries begin on the updated 2027 timeline and convert the reported order book into reference aircraft in service [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [Dealroom.co] | The company has consistently framed the private-owner market as its first wedge, and reported order-book growth from 35 aircraft in January 2025 to 61 private customers by October 2026 [zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] |
| Certification-led training and light-commercial expansion | The Axe moves from enthusiast demand into pilot training, demonstration fleets, and selective commercial operators | FAA experimental flight testing in the U.S. and progress toward production and certification create enough regulatory confidence for institutional buyers [KITPLANES] [avweb.com, 2026] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] | Public sources show the prototype received FAA experimental approval and that Skyfly has discussed training and air-taxi applications alongside private ownership [KITPLANES] [sesamers.com] |
| Propulsion and defense adjacency | Skyfly uses Axe development to sell propulsion technology or hybrid-electric uncrewed systems into defense and government channels | Longbow gains traction with government users or the propulsion stack is adopted by other manufacturers [resiliencemedia.co] [AeroTime, Jul 2026] | The company has already described a separate hybrid-electric defense product and said it will offer its electric propulsion system to third parties, which is a credible adjacency if the core system proves reliable [resiliencemedia.co] [AeroTime, Jul 2026] |
The compounding mechanism here is straightforward if early deliveries happen: every aircraft placed with a private owner or institutional operator becomes proof that the category can move beyond concept demos. In practice that could create a three-part flywheel, where flight-test progress supports certification credibility, credibility converts deposits into deliveries, and aircraft in service create demand for training, maintenance, upgrades, and possibly the propulsion stack itself [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [AOPA, Jan 2026] [AeroTime, Jul 2026]. The public evidence for that flywheel is still early and mostly company-linked, but the pieces are visible: FAA experimental approval for U.S. piloted flights, repeat public updates on the order book, and a stated plan to commercialize the propulsion system beyond Skyfly's own aircraft [avweb.com, 2026] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] [AeroTime, Jul 2026].
The size of the win is best framed as a scenario, not a forecast, because there is no verified revenue base or market-size dataset in the current source set. If the personal aviation beachhead scenario plays out and Skyfly becomes one of the few brands to put meaningful numbers of vertical-capable consumer aircraft into service, the outcome could resemble a strategic aviation platform rather than a single-product manufacturer, particularly if propulsion licensing and defense programs mature alongside the Axe [AeroTime, Jul 2026] [resiliencemedia.co] [Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026]. On the public record alone, that supports a venture-scale upside case, but not a defensible valuation range yet; the deciding variable is whether certification and first deliveries turn reported demand into operating aircraft.
Unconfirmed -- This section relies materially on company statements and press-release-style coverage, with limited independent corroboration beyond funding and FAA experimental-testing references.
Sources
From the public record
[AOPA, Jan 2026] Skyfly sells around 40 Axe aircraft | https://www.aopa.org/news-and-media/all-news/2026/january/pilot/skyfly-axe
[AVweb, 2026] Skyfly Axe Gets FAA Experimental Certificate | https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/skyfly-axe-gets-faa-experimental-certificate/
[Aviation Week] UK’s Skyfly Secures Seed Funding For EVTOL Development | https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/advanced-air-mobility/uks-skyfly-secures-seed-funding-evtol-development
[Crunchbase] Jaap Rademaker - Crunchbase Person Profile | https://www.crunchbase.com/person/jaap-rademaker-3d18
[Crunchbase] Skyfly Technologies Ltd - Crunchbase Company Profile & Funding | https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/skyfly-technologies-ltd
[Dealroom.co] Skyfly Technologies company profile | https://app.dealroom.co/companies/skyfly_technologies
[eVTOL Insights, 2026] Skyfly Axe SN001 granted experimental permit by FAA to begin piloted flights in the USA | https://evtolinsights.com/2026/07/skyfly-axe-sn001-granted-experimental-permit-by-faa-to-begin-piloted-flights-in-the-usa/
[GOV.UK] Skyfly Technologies Ltd | https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/08742819
[huntukvisasponsors.com] Mechanical Design Engineer at Skyfly Technologies Ltd | https://huntukvisasponsors.com/job/mechanical-design-engineer-at-skyfly-technologies-ltd-dhnd8gbsecm2
[KITPLANES] Skyfly Axe Vertically Capable Aircraft Approved By FAA | https://www.kitplanes.com/skyfly-axe-vertically-capable-aircraft-approved-by-faa/
[newatlas.com] SkyFly Axe personal eVTOL could make every home a helipad | https://newatlas.com/aircraft/skyfly-axe-evtol/
[resiliencemedia.co] News feed | https://resiliencemedia.co/category/news/feed/
[rocketreach.co, 2026] Michael Thompson email address & phone number | https://rocketreach.co/michael-thompson-email_22062338
[sesamers.com] Skyfly Technologies | https://www.sesamers.com/startup/skyfly-technologies-ltd/
[skyfly.aero, 2026] eVTOL pioneer Skyfly lands $10 million to bring personal vertical flight to market | https://skyfly.aero/evtol-pioneer-skyfly-lands-10-million-to-bring-personal-vertical-flight-to-market/
[Vertical Magazine, Oct 2026] Skyfly lands $10 million to bring personal vertical flight to market | https://verticalmag.com/press-releases/skyfly-lands-10-million-to-bring-personal-vertical-flight-to-market/amp/
[zagdaily.com, Jan 2025] movemakers 2: how the UK government could be doing more to support SMEs in the eVTOL space | https://zagdaily.com/zag-air/movemakers-2-how-the-uk-government-could-be-doing-more-to-support-smes-in-the-evtol-space/
Articles about Skyfly Technologies
- Skyfly Lands 61 Private Orders for Its Personal eVTOL Before Certification — The London-based developer of vertical-capable aircraft is targeting private owners and defense customers with a hybrid-electric propulsion system.