SkyDrive signs a conditional MOU with Goyang and Verty, targeting 2028

SkyDrive said on November 4, 2026 that it signed a tripartite memorandum of understanding with Goyang Special City and Verty Co. Ltd. The release is datelined Toyota City, Japan. SkyDrive says the three parties will work on operational infrastructure, flight trials and a regional ecosystem to prepare for commercial eVTOL flights in Goyang. The headline says the partnership "targets 2028 commercial flight operations." Founder and chief executive Tomohiro Fukuzawa's quoted remarks say the parties will prepare the ecosystem for commercial operations by 2028. Both the headline and that sentence use 2028 as a target. The release does not call 2028 a scheduled start of service.

SkyDrive says the signing ceremony was held during DRONE-UAM EXPO 2026 at KINTEX in Goyang on November 4, and its caption names, from left, Dong-Woo Kim, chief executive of Verty; Min Kyeong-seon, mayor of Goyang Special City; and Fukuzawa. Asia Business Daily, in a report the same day by Lee Jonggu, says Goyang, Verti and SkyDrive signed at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Drone and Urban Air Mobility Expo in Exhibition Hall 1 at KINTEX. Asia Business Daily writes the Korean company's name as Verti and the mayor's name as Min Kyungseon. SkyDrive writes Verty and Min Kyeong-seon. This page uses SkyDrive's spellings for the company and the mayor, and it treats Asia Business Daily's spellings as the same parties. Asia Business Daily says the three agreed to pursue testing, trial operations and commercialization in Goyang, and to identify joint projects. It says service models and testing projects are to be developed through working-level discussions. That is a plan for later work.

This memorandum is separate from the September 17, 2026 memorandum between SkyDrive and Verty. SkyDrive's November 4 release calls that relationship the initial partnership and links the earlier release. The new document adds Goyang Special City. It is still a memorandum of understanding. SkyDrive does not state an aircraft number, a price or a firm order. No order for the SD-05 is stated.

What each page says about 2028, and what is a model

SkyDrive says South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has a roadmap to launch commercial eVTOL operations by 2028, and that the company's plans align with that roadmap. That is SkyDrive's description of the ministry roadmap. This page did not open the ministry document. SkyDrive also says it reached an agreement with the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau on a project plan and a type certification basis, and that it is making progress toward commercial airworthiness certification. That sentence does not say a type certificate has been issued. The footnote points to an older SkyDrive release. This page did not open that older page, and it does not treat the sentence as a new certificate.

SkyDrive says the companies' booth at the expo, running November 4 to 6, showed a 20 percent scale mockup of the commercial SKYDRIVE, which it identifies as the SD-05. A scale mockup is not a flight of the aircraft. Asia Business Daily also describes a scale model at the joint booth. SkyDrive says Goyang has a population exceeding 1 million, sits next to Gimpo International Airport, and is the designated primary metropolitan demonstration site for the national K-UAM Grand Challenge. Those descriptions are SkyDrive's. The release says Goyang is rapidly constructing vertiport testbeds and aviation infrastructure around KINTEX. It does not give a floor area, a budget or a completion date for a named test center.

The test center date is a target from Asia Business Daily

Asia Business Daily says Goyang is building the KINTEX UAM Test Center and a vertiport, covering approximately 15,085 square meters in Daehwa-dong, Ilsanseo-gu, with approximately KRW 20.19 billion in central government funding. It says that after construction is completed at the end of 2027, the city plans to test aircraft operations, traffic management and vertiport operations. The headline says the test center is set for completion at the end of 2027. That date is a target. SkyDrive's release does not state the area, the funding figure or the end-of-2027 date. Asia Business Daily also says the city is pursuing designation as a UAM pilot operation zone in 2027, and that it will first consider a tourism service linking KINTEX and the Han River waterfront, then seek to expand toward Gimpo International Airport and the Seoul metropolitan area. Those are plans. The article does not say a pilot zone has been designated, and it does not say a tourism service has started.

Mayor Min's remarks on the Asia Business Daily page call the agreement a first step toward turning urban air mobility into a service by connecting the partners' operations with the testing infrastructure the city is building. Verty's chief executive, on SkyDrive's page, describes preparation for commercial operations in Goyang and prior demonstration work under the ministry and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Those are the speakers' accounts. Neither page states a certificate for SkyDrive's aircraft or an air operator certificate for Verty.

The photograph

The photograph is the one SkyDrive published with the release. The caption dates it to the signing ceremony at KINTEX on November 4, 2026 and names the three people. It shows the signed folders. It does not show an aircraft in flight. The scale mockup is a different photograph in the same release, and it is not used here.

What is not established

The document is a memorandum of understanding. It is conditional. It is not a firm order. No aircraft count and no price are stated. 2028 is a target in SkyDrive's headline, in Fukuzawa's remarks, and in SkyDrive's account of a ministry roadmap. It is not a published start of service. The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau sentence is not an issued type certificate. The KINTEX UAM Test Center's area, funding and end-of-2027 completion date are Asia Business Daily's, and the completion date is a target. A 2027 pilot zone and a tourism route are plans. The SD-05 object at the booth is a 20 percent scale mockup. The September 17 memorandum remains a separate, earlier agreement.

Sources

Facts as reported by the linked sources as of Nov 11, 2026. Company targets are plans, not guarantees. Corrections: see About.