Urban air mobility (UAM) company EHang’s EH216-S flagship pilotless passenger-carrying aerial vehicle has completed its inaugural demo flight in downtown Shanghai.

It has also launched regular trial operations of the eVTOL on sightseeing routes by the Huangpu River at Longhua Airport in Shanghai, in preparation for commercial operations in Shanghai.

Longhua Airport is the only airport in Shanghai’s downtown with apron airspace and is home to the East China General Aviation Service Center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). As a base for the development of Shanghai’s low-altitude economy, Longhua Airport offers suitable conditions for various low-altitude economic activities, including aerial mobility, tourism, sightseeing, emergency rescue and logistics.

This flight not only showcased EH216-S’s capabilities for commercial applications in urban sightseeing and travel, but also laid a foundation for its future gradual implementation and realisation of regular commercial operations of urban air taxis in the Yangtze River Delta region around Shanghai.

The EH216-S for this debut flight is one of the aircraft products that EHang has delivered to Hynfar Aviation in Shanghai. Hynfar focusses on eVTOL operations and is an eVTOL operation partner of Longhua Airport. Going forward, EHang, Hynfar and New Margin Eastwood Fund will use Longhua Airport as the base to develop low-altitude economy eVTOL operational scenarios such as passenger transportation and urban sightseeing in the entire area of Shanghai.

The plan is to cover cities and regions along the Yangtze River Delta G60 Science and Innovation Corridor, including nine cities across Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces. This collaboration aims to promote more cities to realise new models of air taxi transportation.

An action plan for developing Shanghai’s low-altitude economy until 2027 aims to position the city as a hub for innovation, commercial applications and operational services, with the core industry scale expected to exceed RMB50bn by 2027. The plan has the the goal of achieving more than 100 low-altitude flight service applications in commercial scenarios such as logistics transportation, emergency rescue, cultural tourism, smart cities and passenger transportation by 2027.

It also promotes pilot projects for commercial passenger transport across and between major transportation hubs, such as Hongqiao International Airport, Pudong International Airport and Longhua Airport, in addition to five new intra-city stops within Shanghai.

“As the world’s first pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOL that has obtained the type, production and standard airworthiness certificates from the CAAC, EH216-S’s successful debut flight in Shanghai has a great demonstration importance, signifying that large central cities in China are on the verge of entering the era of urban air taxi flight scenarios,” said Zhao Wang, EHang’s COO. “With metropolises gradually advancing the development and operations of the low-altitude economy, EHang’s pilotless passenger-carrying eVTOLs are poised to become a key driver in UAM transformation. Looking ahead, we will fully leverage our first-mover advantage as the world’s first certified eVTOL company and join hands with Hynfar Aviation, which has been deeply rooted in the civil aviation field for many years, and combine the all-encompassing layout and rich cultural and tourism resources of the New Margin Eastwood Fund in the low-altitude economic sector, to actively promote market-oriented EH216-S commercial operations in Shanghai and the Yangtze River Delta region. Together, we will explore the diversified applications within the low-altitude economy and jointly build a smarter and more efficient UAM ecosystem, making air taxi rides a part of consumers’ daily travel routines.”

EHang (www.ehang.com) provides users in various industries with unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) systems. Its EH216-S flagship product has obtained the world’s first type, production and standard airworthiness certificates for pilotless eVTOL issued by the CAAC.