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EHang, the Chinese developer of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, on October 13 announced type certification of its two-seat, uncrewed EH216-S multicopter by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
It’s a significant milestone for EHang and the CAAC, which has now become the first regulator to certify an uncrewed eVTOL for passenger-carrying flight (a development that the Federal Aviation Administration and European Union Aviation Safety Agency are nowhere close to replicating). Although EHang won’t be flying commercial passengers in the West anytime soon, it has a large potential market in China and other Asian countries that may be more willing to validate the CAAC’s certification work.
However, it’s not quite off to the races for EHang, as it is still working with the CAAC to finalize operational standards for the aircraft and is planning a progressive ramp-up of operations, the company explained to The Air Current.
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