EHang has announced that its EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) has received a special flight operations certificate (SFOC) from Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA). The SFOC will allow routine trial flights of EHang 216 to be conducted in Quebec.
In a press release announcing the milestone, EHang did not disclose its reasons for flight testing in Canada. However, the Chinese eVTOL developer has a longstanding association with the biotechnology company United Therapeutics to develop AAVs for the transport of human organs. An offshoot of United Therapeutics called Unither Bioelectronics (motto: “We Fly For Life”) is based in Bromont, Quebec. (eVTOL.com has reached out to EHang for further comment.)
“We are pleased to see EHang 216 receiving such an important certificate from TCCA, following consecutive flight approvals received from aviation authorities in different countries, including the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the Civil Aviation Authority of Norway and the Civil Aviation Administration of China,” EHang founder and CEO Huazhi Hu stated in the press release. “It conveys a positive signal from global regulators to establish a supportive and sustainable regulatory environment for the UAM [urban air mobility] industry.”
The announcement comes shortly after EHang released a video showing its EHang 216 being used for aerial sightseeing trials in the coastal city of Yantai, China. The company is developing the EHang 216 for both passenger-carrying and cargo applications.
