Autoflight y CATL estrenan vertiport acuático para eVTOLs
Autoflight has unveiled a battery-electric vessel featuring an integrated eVTOL landing platform, describing it as the first integrated sea-air solution in the eVTOL sector. Electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, or eVTOLs as they are more colloquially known, are designed for cargo or passenger transport. While this market remains in its developmental phase, Autoflight has emerged as one of China’s most promising players.
The vessel, equipped with the integrated platform, also incorporates photovoltaic energy storage and charging systems, operational dispatching functions, and communication infrastructure. CATL has contributed its expertise to many of these solutions. According to Autoflight, the water-based vertiport is particularly suited to five key applications: maintenance of offshore industrial facilities, emergency rescue operations, tourism, commuter transport, and mobile vertiport clusters. The company conducted its first demonstration of the solution at Dianshan Lake in Kunshan, deploying a two-tonne eVTOL from its own product range.
Autoflight’s current product portfolio primarily comprises high-tonnage eVTOLs, including models such as the Prosperity, CarryAll, Albatross, and White Shark. The company currently holds commercial orders totalling 2,000 units. Notably, in spring 2024, the Shanghai-based firm announced the first delivery of its five-seater eVTOL, the Prosperity, to a customer in Japan. Autoflight claimed this was the “world’s first delivery of a civil eVTOL aircraft in the one-tonne class.”
In 2023, the Prosperity model, which was still remotely controlled from the ground, set a record for the longest eVTOL flight distance without recharging. In February 2024, a demonstration flight was conducted between the southern Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai, covering 50 kilometres in 20 minutes. In May 2024, the company reported a 123-kilometre flight in the Middle East, followed by a flight over the Yangtze River in the summer. Additionally, the cargo variant of the Prosperity model, named CarryAll, received type certification from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) in spring 2024.
In August, CATL announced its investment in Autoflight. The battery giant stated it would invest a “three-digit million-dollar amount,” thereby becoming a strategic investor in the eVTOL developer.
Este artículo fue publicado por primera vez por Cora Werwitzke para la edición alemana de electrive.
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