Urban air mobility company EHang announced on Tuesday that it has successfully conducted several aerial sightseeing trial flights using its EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). The trial flights took place in Yantai, China, as part of the company’s world flight tour campaign, which is aimed at demonstrating “the reliability and versatility of its passenger-grade AAVs through safe autonomous flights.” EHang’s AAVs have now completed demo flights in 21 cities and six countries including China, the U.S., Austria, Netherlands, Qatar and UAE.
“As the world’s first provider of passenger-grade AAVs, we are honored to prove this game-changing air mobility solution by demonstrating flights to regulators, customers, partners and the general public,” said EHang founder and CEO Hu Huazhi. “The positive supports and feedback have strengthened our determination in our quest to bring this new style of mobility to the people.”
The autonomous EHang 216 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) has a range of 35 km (19 NM), maximum speed of 130 km/h (70 knots) and payload of 220 kg (485 pounds). According to EHang, its AAVs are suitable for commercial operations such as passenger transportation, aerial sightseeing, air logistics and medical emergency response. As previously reported by AVweb, the company completed its first series of public passenger flights in Vienna, Austria, in April 2019.
