Since Chinese companies have put unmanned intelligent aircraft on their online stores, it has heralded the arrival of the era of low-altitude unmanned flight. Recently, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) officially issued the world's first unmanned manned aircraft production license to EHang, marking that EHang's EH216-S has become the world's first manned unmanned eVTOL model to obtain the "three major passes" for airworthiness, and will enter a larger mass production stage.
This will be another important track in China after new energy vehicles, which means that this type of unmanned manned aircraft has established a mass production quality management system that meets the requirements of China's civil aviation airworthiness regulations, and has been approved for continuous production and mass production. In addition, this type of aircraft has obtained the global airworthiness certificate, and China's unmanned intelligent aircraft has all the conditions to enter the world market.
EHang EH216-S has undoubtedly opened a new era as the industry leader, with a maximum design speed of only 130 kilometers per hour, a maximum range of 30 kilometers, a maximum flight time of 25 minutes, and two seats.
However, the price was only 2.39 million yuan, which was previously sold in the live broadcast room of Make a Friend, and the price of the live broadcast room was 1.99 million yuan. In addition, it has carried out test flight operations in many countries around the world, and it is the world's first unmanned manned aircraft that has collected the "three certificates" of airworthiness certification, which will lead the world into low-altitude flight.
At present, many netizens call EHang EH216-S an "air taxi", but in fact, its application scope is not only in manning, but also widely used in tourism, logistics and transportation, medical emergency and other scenarios.
The low-altitude economy covers the manufacturing and development of low-altitude aircraft such as light and small fixed-wing aircraft, civil helicopters, unmanned aerial vehicles, and eVTOLs, and EH216-S belongs to the eVTOL track. 2024 will be the first year of the eVTOL track.
Next, as long as the owner of the purchased aircraft applies to the local civil aviation department for take-off and landing points and routes, it can basically be used. Some regions in China, such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Hefei and Wuxi, have established eVTOL operation points to explore various business models.
In fact, despite the efforts of the electric vehicle industry for many years to "unmanned", it is easy to achieve at low altitudes, because there is no other additional aircraft impact, hardware support, software power, adequate protection measures, as well as reliable communication and route safety, basically a high degree of safety "unmanned" can be achieved.
The EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft has completed 40,000 safe flights in 14 countries, proving its superior performance and reliability. Because it adopts a full backup design, even if a component fails, the backup component can be taken over immediately and seamlessly, ensuring the smooth flight of the aircraft and the safety of passengers. So, there is no longer any risk in terms of safety.
Now the most critical thing is to "who is the first batch of people to eat crabs", in fact, in the domestic pilot cities, many friends have spent money to sit on the experience, and then enterprises need to do a good job in public science popularization.
Of course, in the future, relevant standards will be established, and all parties involved in low-altitude flights will be prepared in advance. In short, once the unmanned intelligent piloted aircraft are flying all over the sky, it will bring new vitality to the mainland's low-altitude economy.