Chinese eVTOL aircraft manufacturer EHang has announced that its EH216 AAV has performed successful flight demonstrations in Spain. The successful flight demonstration was performed as a part of the European Union’s Air Mobility Urban – Large Experimental Demonstration (AMU-LED) project, one of Europe’s largest Urban Air Mobility (UAM) demonstration projects.
The EH216 flight demonstrations took place at the Rozas Airborne Research Center of Spain’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology in Lugo, Galicia. For this flight demonstration, the autonomous eVTOL EH216‘s flight data were integrated into the project’s U-space platform. The demo flights were safely and efficiently operated under various simulated scenarios, which include the presence of other Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) in the surrounding airspace and the successful implementation of conflict management procedures during flight and approach to the landing vertiport.
The goal of the AMU-LED project is to perform large-scale demonstrations of UAM services with air vehicles and the safe integration of different types of UAS operations in urban environments to realize increasingly sustainable, smart cities. The project kicked off in January 2021 and is to be concluded with the successful flight demonstrations conducted EHang with its EH216 AAV at CIAR in Spain in October 2022.
Ehang’s EH216 air taxi is a two-seater with 16 propellers. The short-range aircraft can fly at altitudes of 9,800 ft (3,000 m). The eVTOL can reach speeds of 81 mph (130 kph) and promises ranges of up to 22 miles (35 km) per charge.
“EH216’s flight demonstrations are of paramount importance to the AMU-LED project, which enables the development of UAM and U-space in Europe,” said Victoria Jing Xiang, Chief Operating Officer of EHang Europe and Latin America. “With the EH216 flight demonstrations, EHang is proud to continue contributing to innovative deployments of safe, sustainable, and efficient aerial transportation for everyone with our cutting-edge AAV technologies.”
