Urban air mobility (UAM) company EHang has launched an aerial tourism service using its two-seat EH216 autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). Conducted in partnership with real estate company Greenland Hong Kong Holdings Limited, the service will include an aerial sightseeing program and aerial media shows at Greenland Hong Kong’s Forest Lake real estate project in Guangdong, China. According to EHang, it plans to expand the service to Greenland Hong Kong locations in other cities over time.
“We are excited to partner with Greenland Hong Kong to launch trial operations of the EH216 and bring our safe, green and comfortable UAM services to local residents,” said Edward Xu, EHang chief strategy officer. “As an AAV technology platform company and a UAM operator, we are steadily rolling out global trial operations and will further work with our partners to build more UAM networks.”
EHang was selected by the Civil Aviation Administration of China as the country’s pilot company for passenger AAV development in January 2019. As previously reported by AVweb, the company has now conducted demo flights in countries including China, the U.S., South Korea, Austria, Netherlands, Qatar and UAE. The EH216 electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft has a range of 35 km (19 NM), maximum speed of 130 km/h (70 knots) and payload of 220 kg (485 pounds).
Guess they don’t have a “1,000 feet above the highest obstruction within 2,000 feet in congested areas” rule.
Autonomous flight is pretty easy when there are no other aircraft in the vicinity to avoid. Autonomous flight also means someone else programs the flight path to avoid any “sensitive” areas.
Once again, videos of multi-motor helicopters without sound. In the unlikely event of these pipe dreams ever coming to fruition, the noise of these things will be unbearable, especially in the urban environment for which they are being marketed.