By eVTOL | October 11, 2019 Estimated reading time 2 minutes, 51 seconds.
Following an initial round of deliveries in June, EHang has delivered a second batch of its EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs).
The Chinese eVTOL developer said that these “passenger-grade” aircraft have now reached customers in Asia, Europe, and North America. Use cases being explored include tourism, medical applications, and general transportation. One previously announced EHang customer includes the United Therapeutics subsidiary Lung Biotechnology, which wants to use eVTOL aircraft to transport organs for human transplant.
In a press release, EHang founder, chairman, and CEO Hu Huazhi stated, “This delivery of AAVs marks a major step forward in EHang’s efforts to offer a full-stack solution for the emerging urban air mobility market on a global scale. We will continue to work closely with our customers, business partners, and regulators on various issues including infrastructure rollout, flight permit, trial operations, and technical support to enable a new era of urban air mobility.”
EHang said it has already conducted over 2,000 flight tests around the world, and is working with regulatory authorities including the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), European Union Aviation Safety Agency, Civil Aviation Administration of China, and others “to ensure that global regulatory standards are able to efficiently meet the demands of future urban air mobility.”
The company also exhibited the EHang 216 at ICAO’s inaugural Innovation Fair in Montreal, Quebec, in late September. There, ICAO Council President Dr. Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu highlighted the importance of sustainable new aviation technologies, telling attendees, “The new aircraft and flight capabilities being realized today hold the promise of being able to deliver completely new frameworks for how modern societies support and help their populations to survive, and to thrive.”
I’m excited to see how far eHang has come in just a few years. It’s spectacular progress I wish to see more on the West. I will be in Guangzhou in November and hope to see them there.
I’m having a hard time finding out more about the specifics of the aircraft, battery capacity, maker, and more. With a little luck, I’ll see them flying introducing the first eVTOL service. Now that’s history in the making.
This is pretty amazing
Will see how the military hold up when evtol aviation is practiced in US civil aviation