On June 14th, it was announced by Yihang Intelligence that its unmanned electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft EH216-S has completed Saudi Arabia's first unmanned aerial taxi flight in the holy city of Mecca.
It is reported that EH216-S is the first unmanned eVTOL aircraft issued with a airworthiness certificate by the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
Its design resembles a helicopter with full propellers, but compared to traditional helicopters with separate rotors, the Yihang EH216-S has a total of 8 shafts and up to 16 rotors.
It can carry two people, with a length of 6.05 meters, a width of 5.73 meters, and a height of 1.93 meters. It consists of 16 propellers and can take off and land vertically without the need for a runway. It mainly flies in low altitude airspace.
The maximum range for a single flight is 30 kilometers in a straight line in the air, and the maximum flight speed can reach 130 kilometers per hour. Through the management of the ground command and dispatch system, multiple aircraft can complete orderly unmanned flight in the air.
All key flight components are designed with full backup, including flight control systems, various sensors, power systems, batteries, and their management systems. Even if a component encounters a problem, the backup component will immediately take over seamlessly to ensure safety.
In February of this year, Yihang Intelligence announced that the EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system has an official guide price of 2.39 million yuan per aircraft in China, and will officially come into effect on April 1, 2024.