EHang’s certification plan for EH216-S approved by CAAC

EHang’s certification plan for its passenger-grade EH216-S has been approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).

As part of the plan, a variety of factors have been confirmed for review including performance and flight, structural strength, design and configuration and airborne human-computer interaction. EHang also said activities for demonstration and verification of compliance are being prepared.

A number of positive flight tests looking at aerodynamics, overload ratio etc. have also been completed. EHang has now accumulated more than 30,000 trial flights of the EH216-S, with more flights planned from October this year.

Through its joint working with the CAAC’s EH216-S review panel EHang said it has been provided with guidance and support by the CAAC to “deepen and accelerate” the certification process.

Huazhi Hu, founder, chairman and CEO, EHang, said the company has always been committed to innovation, analysis and verification. “Contributing our experience and expertise to formulating relevant industry standards and norms, as well as leading the development of the global eVTOL industry. Completing the airworthiness certification process is a necessary and critical step to further validate the product safety.”

Hu added: “We are fully confident to obtain the EH216-S Type Certificate as we have basically done the most arduous work by now. We will make continued efforts to accelerate all the remaining processes in the upcoming months in order to obtain the EH216-S Type Certificate as soon as possible.”

In February 2022, the CAAC officially issued special conditions for the EH216-S, which provides safety standards for EH216-S AAVs.