World’s first pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOL receives certification

Chinese electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft company Ehang has completed a demonstration flight of its autonomous air taxi in Shanghai. The EH216-S is the first passenger air taxi to receive certification worldwide and is fully autonomous—it does not require a pilot within the aircraft.

Ehang and its customer, Shanghai Hynfar Aviation, have now started trial operations for sightseeing flights along the Huangpu River in Shanghai. The pilotless eVTOL flights take off from Longhua Airport in downtown Shanghai.

For the maiden flight, Ehang delivered its EH216-S to its customer Shanghai Hynfar Aviation. The aviation company is based in Shanghai and focuses on eVTOL operations. Hynfar Aviation is an eVTOL operating partner of Longhua Airport.

Ehang and Hynfar Aviation and the New Margin Eastwood Fund plan to use Longhua Airport as a base to develop a variety of low-altitude eVTOL operation scenarios, such as passenger transportation and sightseeing throughout the Shanghai area and other cities and regions in the Yangtze River Delta.

According to Ehang, the demonstration flight did more than just prove the EH216-S’s capabilities for commercial applications in urban sightseeing and travel scenarios. The company also said the maiden flight laid a solid foundation for the gradual introduction and realization of regular commercial operation of autonomous urban air taxis in the Yangtze River Delta region around Shanghai as part of China’s ‘low altitude economy’.

(Pilotless) pilot projects for commercial passenger transportation are to be funded for routes over and between major transport hubs such as Hongqiao International Airport, Pudong International Airport and Longhua Airport, as well as five new inner-city stops in Shanghai.

With its ‘Action Plan for High-Quality Development of Shanghai Low-Altitude Economy Industry’ (2024–2027), the Chinese government envisages Shanghai as a leading hub for innovation, commercial applications, and operational services in the low-altitude economy. The plan includes a goal of instigating over 100 low-altitude flight service applications in commercial scenarios. This includes logistics transportation, emergency rescue, cultural tourism, smart cities, and passenger transportation by 2027.

While the aim of this collaboration with a pilotless, autonomous eVTOL is to support several cities in implementing new models for air taxi transportation, it also marks perhaps even more important developments in aviation with the low-altitude economy and pilotless eVTOL aircraft. Often overlooked by Western media is that eVTOL aircraft and the low altitude economy encompass more than just air taxis, which tend to capture the imagination of electric vehicle enthusiasts at the exclusion of other, perhaps more essential functions.

In an age of catastrophic climate change disasters and the global transition off fossil fuels, drones and other eVTOLs can fulfil important functions in both energy and space-saving everyday logistics operations as well as life-saving functions in emergency service operations.

In recent catastrophic fires such as those experienced in California, as well as those that spread across Australia during the Black Summer of July 2019 – March 2020, drones played an important role in assessing the progress of the fire as well as damage, being able to go where smoke was too thick to see from conventional aircraft. This is where pilotless eVTOLs dramatically increase emergency capacities: Pilotless eVTOLs can attempt to evacuate people without putting pilots’ lives at risk. The company has not yet made mention of the emergency service functions of autonomous passenger-carrying but has a history of focussing on emergency services. Ehang presented its first firefighting drone in 2020

In logistics operations, eVTOLs can take direct routes, saving energy and time for things such as food deliveries and essential medication and food items in disaster zones. In 2019, DHL Express and EHang entered into a strategic partnership to develop a fully automated drone delivery solution for China’s metropolitan areas.

However, legislation and public awareness of this technology are key. Hence, the concept of the low-altitude economy encompasses legislation and infrastructure, not just aircraft and eVTOL technology. The need for legislation and public awareness was recently highlighted in the Californian fires, where privately operated drones interfered with emergency services.

Zhao Wang, EHang’s Chief Operating Officer, stated: “As the world’s first pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOL that has obtained the Type Certificate, Production Certificate, and Standard Airworthiness Certificate from the CAAC, EH216-S’s successful debut flight in Shanghai has a great demonstration importance, signifying that large central cities in China are on the verge of entering the era of urban air taxi flight scenarios.” Further, he said that Ehang and its partners “will explore the diversified application scenarios within the low-altitude economy and jointly build a smarter and more efficient UAM ecosystem, making air taxi rides a part of consumers’ daily travel routines.”

Ehang is already moving forward in territories outside of China. In late 2024, the eVTOL company conducted test flights in the Thai capital, Bangkok. Thailand was the 18th country where one of Ehang’s electric vertical take-off aircraft was allowed to take off.

The Chinese company is several steps ahead of its Western competitors in developing its flying taxi. While Western companies are struggling to establish air taxi services in commercial operation with a pilot, Ehang is the only air taxi developer in the world to have received a type certificate and a production certificate for an autonomous eVTOL. Meanwhile, the German competitors are facing massive problems: Lilium went bankrupt in the latter half of 2024 but is now to be rescued by investors with a financial injection of 200 million euros. Volocopter, on the other hand, went bankrupt at the end of 2024 and is now looking for investors.

ehang.com

0 Comments

about „World’s first pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOL receives certification“

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *