Advanced Air Mobility pioneer EHang (NASDAQ: EH) has announced two significant milestones in the journey towards type certification of the EH216-S passenger drone.
Final Testing Complete
EHang has now completed the final flight tests required in the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) type certification (TC) process for the EH216-S. The process has taken 31 months – but EHang says that they expect to receive type certification soon, having finished the last stage of the evaluation with flights to demonstrate and verify compliance with regulations.
Ranging from battery, environment, material, strength, electronics, software, data link to ground control station, we have sufficiently proved that EH216-S meets the safety standards and airworthiness requirements by the CAAC, through scientific approaches, multi-angle demonstrations, rigorous testing, and continuous optimizations.
As an innovative product for urban air mobility, EH216-S stick to three fundamental technological principles, which are full redundancy, autonomous flying, and cluster management.
When EHang receives CAAC TC, the certification will represent a global first in the advanced air mobility industry. “We’ve made remarkable progress in our pursuit of long-term growth. Notably, we are thrilled to announce that we have successfully completed all the planned tests for EH216-S type certification,” said Huazhi Hu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of EHang. This achievement marks a significant unprecedented milestone in the global emerging eVTOL industry, underscoring our unwavering dedication and pioneering advantages. Additionally, this sets the stage for us to secure the type certificate soon and proceed with our endeavors to initiate commercial operations.”
The Cloud System Enabling Commercial Flights
EHang Unmanned Aircraft Cloud System (UACS) has also been approved by the CAAC for trial operations. EHang UACS is designed as an airspace management tool and operations management tool “enabling cluster management of multiple aircrafts within the same airspace… ensuring safer and more reliable operations.”
“…the approval of the UACS trial operations serves as a significant safeguard for large-scale operational safety and management,” says the announcement.
EHang has conducted over 9,300 successful low-altitude “tourism flight trials” in 18 cities in China. These flights have served as a testing ground for the UACS digital platform.
As EHang has moved forwards on TC, Chinese government agencies have moved to “support the development of the low-altitude economy, which creates a broad space for the implementation and operation of UAM applications,” the announcement says.
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Miriam McNabb is the Editor-in-Chief of DRONELIFE and CEO of JobForDrones, a professional drone services marketplace, and a fascinated observer of the emerging drone industry and the regulatory environment for drones. Miriam has penned over 3,000 articles focused on the commercial drone space and is an international speaker and recognized figure in the industry. Miriam has a degree from the University of Chicago and over 20 years of experience in high tech sales and marketing for new technologies.For drone industry consulting or writing, Email Miriam.
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