eVTOL company EHang has a flight permit allowing trial operation of full unmanned flights in Austrian national airspace.
This is the first flight permit for EHang’s passenger-grade AAVs within the European Union.
As part of the process, a test flight occurred in November 2020. It was the first flight ever in open EASA airspace. After a Specific Operational Risk Assessment (SORA) procedure, an EH216 AAV with the registration OE-VFA took off in St. Martin im Innkreis, in Upper Austria.
The unmanned aircraft flew for several minutes via automatic flight programming and then safely landed, despite harsh weather conditions of severe cold and high wind speed.
Update
The first test flight with the autonomous flight taxi EHang 216 was successfully carried out on our premises in St. Martin i.I. The flight took place under the supervision of the Austrian aviation authority Austro Control, which granted the test permit. https://t.co/ZK8r3K3IFF pic.twitter.com/hLFO3cxyTG
— FACC AG (@facc_ag) December 18, 2020
EHang 216 Korean Flight Tour
EHang 216 has also completed maiden flights in three Korean locations – Seoul, Daegu, and Jeju Island.
During the flight tour, EHang brought the world’s leading UAM solution to Korea, including passenger transportation, emergency medical service and aerial sightseeing.
In Seoul, EHang 216 took off from Yeouido Island in downtown to have an autonomous flight over a densely populated area. The second flight was done in Suseong District, Daegu City, to deliver a package containing a 119 fire emergency kit and AED materials. The last flight was done in Jeju Island, EHang 216 flew over the coastline to demonstrate the real use case of aerial sightseeing.
The Korean flight tour was completed after obtaining the first SAC (Special Certificate of Airworthiness) issued for a passenger-grade AAV by MOLIT. Respectively, the three flights demonstrated the practical use cases of EHang’s UAM solutions in different scenarios.
The Acting Mayor of Seoul, Seo Jeong-hyup, announced that the city government will strive to ensure that the human dream of safely flying can become reality for Seoul citizens, which will support the future industry of Korea.
