Urban Air Mobility (UAM) developer EHang in China said its EH216-S, a passenger-carrying unmanned aerial vehicle system, has obtained the type certificate officially issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
This demonstrates that the EH216-S’s model design fully complies with CAAC’s safety standards and airworthiness requirements, and that the EH216-S is qualified for conducting passenger-carrying UAV commercial operations. EHang said this was the world’s first certification for unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL).
During the validation process, the EH216-S underwent laboratory, ground, and flight tests across multiple locations in China. These tests included but were not limited to main material performance, structural strength, flame resistance, crashworthiness, gas toxicity, environmental conditions of equipment and systems, software simulation, data links, ground control stations, overall system functionality, electromagnetic compatibility, flight performance and flight stability characteristics.
The validation process scrutinised components, equipment, and the entire aircraft for prefabricated defects, faults and interferences during both laboratory experiments and flight trials. With that, the safety, airworthiness, performance, functionality, usability and reliability of the EH216-S have been thoroughly and validated through over 500 specific test items, more than 40,000 test flights for adjustments, and formal conformity validation tests encompassing 65 major categories and over 450 individual test items.
Huazhi Hu, Founder, Chairman and CEO of EHang, remarked, “I extend my heartfelt gratitude to CAAC, the expert team, and all EHang employees for their unwavering dedication. Our self-developed EH216-S passenger-carrying UAV system has finally met high expectation to secure the first TC in the global eVTOL industry, marking a significant chapter in civil aviation history. Embracing the TC as our springboard, we will launch commercial operations of the EH216-S unmanned eVTOLs, prioritizing safety above all. This will enable us to steadily progress towards our strategic goal to be a UAM platform operator, and commit to our mission to enable safe, autonomous, and eco-friendly air mobility accessible to everyone.”
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