World’s first type-certified eVTOL aircraft is ready for service | eVTOL

Way back at CES 2016, eHang stunned the world with a little autonomous passenger-carrying octacopter concept. Seven years later, that concept has evolved into the world’s first fully certified eVTOL air taxi, cleared for commercial air taxi work.

It’s a testament to the design simplicity of the eHang EH 216, which now flies on eight coaxially mounted pairs of propellers for 16 props in total, and autonomously ferries two passengers up to 30 km (18.6 miles) between charges, at a top speed around 130 km/h (81 mph).

These are humble figures compared to the 200-mile, 200-mph (322 km/322 km/h), five-seat Joby S4, which leads team “rest of the world” in the race to FAA and EASA certification, and is also capable of tilting its six large rotors forward for highly efficient, wing-supported, horizontal cruise flight – but on the other hand, the eHang aircraft’s specs are well-suited to…

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