AutoFlight has today (Tuesday) completed the world’s first inter-city electric air-taxi demonstration flight between the southern Chinese cities of Shenzhen and Zhuhai.
The company’s five-seater Prosperity eVTOL aircraft completed the significant milestone by autonomously flying the 50km (31 miles) route, which took 20 minutes. A similar journey by car would take three hours.
This achievement marks the world’s first public flight of an eVTOL aircraft on a cross-sea and inter-city route, spanning across the bay where the Pearl River meets the sea and which connects the two cities.
Tian Yu, founder, CEO and Co-Chairman of AutoFlight said: “We are thrilled to showcase AutoFlight’s cutting-edge capabilities today in the world’s first cross-sea and inter-city eVTOL demonstration flight.
“Working closely together with the local authorities and partners here, and in other jurisdictions around the world, we will continue to drive this revolution to bring safe, efficient, sustainable and affordable eVTOL flight options to cities around the world.”
The route between Shenzhen and Zhuhai is part of the future air traffic scenario planned by the regional government as it develops its ‘low-altitude economy’ strategy that will see the opening of thousands of vertiports and hundreds of routes for eVTOL aircraft across the Greater Bay Area in southern China.
Low-altitude application scenarios will include passenger transport, tourism, logistics and emergency services. In the short term, plans are in development to achieve 300,000 cargo UAV flights in this region per year.
AutoFlight’s partner in the region Heli-Eastern, a major low-altitude general aviation carrier and helicopter service provider, recently entered an agreement with AutoFlight to purchase 100 Prosperity passenger eVTOL aircraft.
The aircraft will be used on routes such as the one demonstrated by AutoFlight, from Shekou Ferry Port in Shenzhen to the Jiuzhou Ferry Port in Zhuhai, as well as from other transportation hubs in the region.
Mr Tian continued: “We warmly welcome our strong cooperation with Heli-Eastern and together we are rapidly moving towards fully operational air-taxi routes all across the region.”
The demonstration flight took place in one of the world’s most densely populated areas, home to about 86 million people and in an airspace that borders multiple international airports, including Hong Kong, Shenzhen and Macau.
The demonstration flight was uncrewed and fully autonomous, with certification for crewed passenger flights anticipated within approximately two years.
Prosperity was designed by Frank Stephenson, the renowned designer who revolutionised the Mini and the Fiat 500, and created iconic designs for Ferrari, McLaren and Maserati, among many others, before turning his design talents to the skies and the realm of flying taxis.
This latest milestone from AutoFlight adds to a list of milestone already achieved by the company. It includes setting world records for single battery charge flight distances (250.3km/155 miles) and carrying out a ground-breaking formation flight of three autonomous eVTOL aircraft.
Additionally, AutoFlight’s unmanned cargo version, CarryAll, is soon to receive Type Certification (TC) from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), paving the way for the certification of the passenger model.
