On February 6, EHANG announced that the EHANG 184 Autonomous Aerial Vehicle has achieved a series of manned flight tests carrying one and two passengers, including EHANG CEO and all executives, as well as many Guangzhou government officials.
Among the 40 or so passengers who helped in this crucial testing phase were WANG Dong, deputy mayor of Guangzhou, and EHANG founder and CEO, Huazhi Hu. “Performing manned test flights enables us to demonstrate the safety and stability of our vehicles,” Hu said. “What we’re doing isn’t an extreme sport, so the safety of each passenger always comes first. Now that we’ve successfully tested the EHANG 184, I’m really excited to see what the future holds for us in terms of air mobility.
Hu founded EHANG in 2014 and since then more than 150 technical engineers have conducted thousands of test flights, including a vertical climbing test reaching up to 300 m, a loaded test flight carrying approximately 230 kg, a routed test flight covering 15 km, and a high-speed cruising test that reached 130 km/h.
“We’ve been developing and testing aerial vehicle technology for some time now, and we’re finally at the test flight stage for the AAV. It’s been a huge success,” said Hu.
Despite this success, the EHANG 184 AAV will still see further improvements. More emphasis will be placed on improving passenger experience and on adding an optional manual control, giving passengers with piloting experience the choice to operate the vehicle manually. In addition, the company has already developed and tested a 2-seat AAV with a payload of up to 280 kg.
