The first type certification (TC) application for a piloted eVTOL has been accepted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), representing a significant milestone for the eVTOL industry worldwide, according to Louis Liu, founder and CEO of China-based consulting firm DAP Technologies.
(Note that the CAAC accepted the first autonomous flight eVTOL TC application for EHang’s EH216-S in January 2021.)
This piloted four-passenger eVTOL is the AE200 made by Aerofugia, founded in 2020 as a subsidiary of China-based Geely Technology Group. The Group’s air mobility division focuses on the urban space, offering general aviation aircraft research and development, design, manufacturing and joint service operations.
The AE200 is in its prototype stage, launched in August 2022. Weight is expected to be 2,500 kilograms (5,510 pounds), cruising speed 248 kilometers per hour (154 miles per hour), and range 200 kilometers (124 miles).
“Currently, the airworthiness certification of the AE200 is progressing steadily as planned,” company spokesperson Lenity Fei told Vertical.
The first hover test flight took place on Jan. 17. “The test showed that the flight control and power systems worked well,” Fei said. “Now, the design assurance system review, confirmation of certification basis and means of compliance, will be carried out, along with approval of the certification plan, prototype development and continuous test flights.”
TC is expected to be complete in three to five years, she explained, depending on CCAR-21 Certification Procedures for Products and Parts.
The company’s plant will simultaneously build the production quality system and conformity inspection process.
Inside the design
The company said the aircraft is designed for low noise emissions, although details are confidential.
Fei said that because of the use of distributed electric drive and other noise reduction design elements, “the noise during operation [will be] much lower than the noise level of helicopters and civil aviation aircraft, and can be controlled within the acceptable range of the public.”
The AE200 also has automatic mission planning, recommend actions and full fly-by-wire flying assistance capabilities. This means “the entire operation of the AE200 is expected to be fully automated,” Fei said, “but its flight [currently] requires pilot control.”
In terms of lift, the AE200 features an “applied upper single-wing distributed tilt power design.”
Fei explained, “Firstly, compared to wingless or lift-plus-cruise configuration eVTOLs, the tilt power design involves less ‘dead weight’ [fewer motors, electric regulators, propellers, etc.]. This allows the aircraft more range, shorter turnaround time, and lower fuel consumption.”
She added that “thanks to the technological advantages of distributed electric propulsion systems, the reliability and safety problems of the traditional tilt mechanisms can be overcome by dissimilar redundancy design.”
“Secondly,” she said, “with the upper single-wing, the rotor can be placed higher to fully ensure safe access to the cabin for the pilot, passengers and maintenance personnel, whilst allowing the aircraft to be applied in different environments. The aircraft can take off and land under simpler conditions, such as grassland and riverbanks, without necessarily requiring a hard runway or a dedicated helicopter landing platform.”
However, intercity and intracity travel using the AE200 will potentially involve the use of vertiports and sites within cities such as parking lots and the tops buildings.
Aircraft and services
In late 2021, Aerofugia and German eVTOL developer Volocopter finalized a joint venture company called Volocopter (Chengdu) Technology Company.
Fei explained that this company will provide product service and after-sales guarantees for both Aerofugia and Volocopter aircraft through joint operations and services. In addition, she said “Aerofugia and Volocopter will jointly promote the airworthiness certification process of both company’s products, and actively cooperate with partners in infrastructure construction, ground operations and air traffic management.”
In the urban air mobility (UAM) market, Aerofugia will both supply aircraft to low-altitude travel/logistics operators and continuous airworthiness support service, while also helping operators with their service provisions to their end customers.
“Tourists are part of our most important target clients,” Fei said. “Besides that, entertainment service and emergency medical service are also the target scenarios of AE200.”
At this point, the company hasn’t identified a launch city, but Fei reported that “we have very good communication and collaborations with local governments and strategic partners in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Yangtze River Delta city cluster, the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei city cluster, and the Chengdu-Chongqing Twin-City Economic Circle. When the time comes, we will actively promote the rapid implementation in more regions if necessary.”
Fei explained that overall, “our key strategy to promote this industry is on the technological development of UAM aircraft, which includes new energy solution, vertical take-off/landing technology and the Smart Swarm Transportation System [SSTS].”
The SSTS is an integrated air-ground transportation solution for various application scenarios that comprehensively considers multiple travel modes, air or ground vehicle configurations, communication methods, and energy sources.
“The difficulty of SSTS lies in the standardization of intelligent devices, the compatibility of communication protocols, and the balance between system onboard security and global economic efficiency, by solving which SSTS can truly solve the pain points of users and benefit society,” Fei said.
