Chinese authorities have given the green light to EHang to carry out passenger carrying commercial operations using an unmanned air vehicle (UAV).

EHang, an urban air mobility (UAM) technology company, announced that its EH216-S self-developed passenger-carrying UAV has obtained the type certificate officially issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

This demonstrates that the EH216-S’s design complies with CAAC’s safety standards and airworthiness requirements, and that the EH216-S is qualified for conducting passenger-carrying UAV commercial operations.

This is said to be the world’s first type certificate for unmanned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL).

The EH216-S TC awarding ceremony was held at the Camic International Convention Center in Beijing this month, during which CAAC issued the certificate to EHang.

Since CAAC formally accepted EHang’s EH216-S application in January 2021, the EHang team worked closely with CAAC and its expert team towards validating and verifying the aircraft’s technologies. After more than 1000 days and nights of effort, they overcame all kinds of difficulties and challenges to complete all type certification objectives, proving that EHang is capable of independently designing, developing and manufacturing mature unmanned eVTOL products.

The EH216-S differs from conventional aircraft in key areas including technical architecture, configuration, performance, functionality, operational mode and flight environment. For the EH216-S type certification, CAAC and EHang upheld conventional century-old aviation principles alongside an innovation-centric approach, which involved formulating specific certification basis and means of compliance tailored to the EH216-S’s distinctive technical features, to conduct the type certification work.

CAAC assembled experts from local authorities, aviation institutions and research organisations, and formally published the special conditions for the EH216-S UAV in February 2022.

During the validation process, the EH216-S underwent laboratory, ground and flight tests at professional aviation laboratories and test sites across multiple locations in China. These tests included 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 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.

“I extend my heartfelt gratitude to CAAC, the expert team, and all EHang employees for their unwavering dedication,” said Huazhi Hu, CEO of EHang (www.ehang.com). “Our self-developed EH216-S passenger-carrying UAV system has finally met high expectation to secure the first type certificate in the global eVTOL industry, marking a significant chapter in civil aviation history. Embracing the type certificate as our springboard, we will launch commercial operations of the EH216-S unmanned eVTOLs, prioritising 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.”

See also: Come fly with me, and don’t forget the golf clubs.