EHang’s air taxi demos aid UAM U-Space development in the EU

EHang, the China-based developer of next-generation aircraft for use in urban air mobility (UAM) services, has taken another step in its efforts to usher in the launch of air taxis around the globe by successfully completing demonstration flights of its EH216 in a European Union-sanctioned event.

EHang said its EH216 air taxi prototype performed without hitches during a session in Spain of the “Air Mobility Urban – Large Experimental Demonstration” (AMU-LED) project, one of the EU’s largest programs to feature, test, and advance UAM craft and services toward launch. The series of outings were held at a Galician research center of Spain’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology, and fulfilled Concepts of Operations requirements that met objectives stipulated under the AMU-LED project.

Read: Drone incidents drop in the EASA’s 2021 annual safety report 

To do so, the flight data of EHang’s autonomously operated EH216 air taxi was entered into the tech platform managing the surrounding UAM airspace for monitoring and guidance during the demonstrations. The craft safely and effectively negotiated a series of simulated scenarios likely to be encountered during actual service, including the presence of other uncrewed craft in the same U-Space. In response, the EH216 successful executed conflict management procedures during cruising and approach to the designated vertiport for landing. 

“EH216’s flight demonstrations are of paramount importance to the AMU-LED project, which enables the development of UAM and U-space in Europe,” said Victoria Jing Xiang, EHang’s chief operating officer for Europe and Latin America. “With the EH216 flight demonstrations, EHang is proud to continue contributing to innovative deployments of safe, sustainable and efficient aerial transportation for everyone with our cutting-edge (UAM) technologies.”

The demonstration of EHang’s air taxi prototype closed out the series of UAM events under the current AMU-LED round, which began in January of 2021. The program is part of the EU’s Horizon 2020 program. It is conducted under its Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research initiative staging test flights of next-generation aircraft operating different kinds of missions – including transport of human passengers and cargo.

EHang is one of 16 AMU-LED consortium members that include aerospace research institutes, universities, drone producers, UAM, and air taxi manufacturers and operators, and navigation and U-space service providers. 

Read: Spain’s National Police welcomes its EHang EH216 into use 

Earlier this month, the company assisted Spain’s National Police in test flights of the EHang EH216 air taxi that the force acquired for official use in emergency responses.