Recently, the news that US listed company Yihang Intelligent has obtained the world's first eVTOL model certificate has boosted the eVTOL (electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, commonly known as "flying cars") industry.
The eV-T-OL is a brand new aircraft model that has emerged in recent years, and there are currently no corresponding existing airworthiness certification standards to follow at home and abroad. "Shen Haijun, a professor at the School of Aeronautics, Astronautics, and Mechanics at Tongji University and director of the Aircraft Engineering Research Institute, told Shanghai Securities News. The evidence obtained by Yihang Intelligence indicates that the airworthiness certification standards for China's eV-T-OL have gradually taken shape in practice and have gained priority discourse worldwide. China's new energy aircraft, represented by eVTOL, has developed rapidly and has taken the lead in the world.
Issuance of the first eVTOL model certificate
On October 13th, Yihang Intelligent announced that the EH216-S unmanned manned aircraft system independently developed by the company has obtained the Type Certificate (TC) officially issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), marking that the model design of EH216-S fully meets the safety standards and airworthiness requirements of CAAC and has the qualification for commercial operation of unmanned aerial vehicles.
The EH216-S manned unmanned aerial vehicle is a product independently developed by Yihang Intelligent. It is a manned vertical takeoff and landing aircraft that can achieve unmanned operation and can be applied in scenarios such as manned transportation, air tourism, air logistics, and medical emergency response.
At the end of 2020, Yihang Intelligent submitted an application for the EH216-S manned unmanned aerial vehicle model certificate to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. Due to the lack of prior experience in obtaining airworthiness certificates for this type of aircraft, the issuance of airworthiness certificates by Yihang Intelligence has also received high attention from the Civil Aviation Administration of China. In the airworthiness certificate review, we even referred to the airworthiness certificate related review process of the large aircraft C919 to ensure that the EH216-S airworthiness certificate review meets the standards, "said Lu Chengcheng, chief engineer of Yihang Intelligence.
The intelligent forensics of Yihang this time has greatly excited the eVTOL industry. Multiple industry insiders have analyzed that this will play an important catalytic role in the eVTOL industry.
Yin Shijun, Chief Engineer of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, stated at the certification ceremony for the intelligent certification of Yihang that currently, China's unmanned aviation industry as a whole is still in the cultivation stage. The Civil Aviation Administration of China is planning to continue promoting the high-quality development of the unmanned aviation industry. Enterprises should handle the relationship between development and security, strictly adhere to operating standards in the subsequent operation process, continuously optimize product design while ensuring safety, and gradually expand application scenarios.
Cross border layout of mainstream car companies
Shen Haijun stated that the most promising application scenario for eV-T-OL is urban air transportation, that is, air taxis. There are many startups in the industry, including Xiaopeng and Geely. "I know of nearly 10 domestic companies, which indicates that everyone is generally optimistic about this field. The dynamics of top companies such as Yihang, Xiaopeng, and Geely are all worth paying attention to
According to multiple interviews with reporters, multiple mainstream car companies are increasing their layout efforts for flying cars, and the industry development is expected to accelerate.
The application for the next generation product of the company is advancing, "a person from Xiaopeng Huitian told reporters on October 16th regarding the significant progress of Yihang Intelligent, a friend of the company. In January 2023, Xiaopeng Huitian Traveler X2 officially obtained a licensed flight license issued by the Central and Southern Regional Administration of Civil Aviation of China. Traveler X2 became the first manned eVTOL product in China to apply and successfully obtain approval.
Xiaopeng Huitian stated that in March 2022, the Ministry of Transport and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly issued the "Outline of Medium and Long Term Development Plan for Science and Technology Innovation in the Transportation Industry (2021-2035)", which requires the development of new transportation tools, namely the deployment of flying vehicles, breakthroughs in technologies such as the integration of aircraft and vehicles, and the free switching between flight and ground travel. Xiaopeng Huitian Traveler X2 has been awarded a charter flight certificate, which means the acceleration of the development of flying cars and has a huge driving effect on the entire industry and industrial development.
Geely Technology Group's Wofei Changkong has previously released its independently developed TF-2 pure electric vertical takeoff and landing manned aircraft. According to Guo Liang, President and Chief Scientist of Wofei Changkong, the overall solution for low altitude flight with TF-2 as the core can meet the needs of zero emissions, low noise, and high-frequency commercial operations in cities. At present, Wofei Changkong has broken through the key technology of tilt dynamic process, and will mainly focus on the two major markets of low altitude logistics and low altitude travel in the early stage, carrying goods first and then passengers, gradually expanding its application scenarios.
On the one hand, investing in the development of flying cars by car companies helps to enhance their brand image and gain consumers' favor in terms of technology and intelligence. On the other hand, the cutting-edge intelligent flight technology achieved in the research and development process of flying cars can also be applied to intelligent new energy vehicles and play a role in ground transportation, "an automotive industry analyst told reporters.
The industrial chain is rising in the wind
In addition to significant breakthroughs on the enterprise side, eVTOL has also recently received a warm welcome in policy. On October 10th, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments released the "Outline for the Development of Green Aviation Manufacturing Industry (2023-2035)" (referred to as the "Outline"), proposing development paths such as "green+" to promote the upgrading of the civil aircraft industry, opening up new fields of electric aviation, and laying out new tracks for hydrogen energy aviation.
Flying cars will create an extremely vast market in the future. According to Morgan Stanley's forecast, the global flying car market will grow to $1.5 trillion by 2040. According to Roland Berg's prediction, by 2050, there will be 98000 flying cars in the air of 95 major cities worldwide.
In terms of the industrial chain, in addition to cross-border car companies, there are also many companies that are expected to "get a piece of the pie" from it. Battery manufacturers such as Ningde Times and BYD are all promoting research and development of related products. On September 18th, Ningde Times announced on the interactive platform that it is currently collaborating on the development of a civilian electric manned aircraft project, implementing aviation level standards and testing to meet aviation level safety and quality requirements. Ningde Times will also launch a vehicle level application version of condensed state batteries, which will have mass production capacity within this year.
Some automotive component companies have also disclosed the progress of flight vehicle related projects on interactive platforms. Guangyang Co., Ltd. stated that the flight vehicle project that the company is currently collaborating with has completed the delivery of A samples and is in the stage of customer debugging and verification. Sen Qilin stated that the company has successfully obtained the supporting qualification for the only domestic flight car tire project - Xiaopeng Flight Car Tire Project, and is currently in the testing and verification stage.
Some companies are also holding hands with flying car manufacturers in their business models. For example, Lingnan Holdings and Yihang Intelligent have reached a strategic cooperation since 2020, with the application of intelligent autonomous flight vehicles in the cultural and tourism industry as the entry point, and work together to build industrial cooperation* ST Xiyu has also signed a "Cooperation Framework Agreement" with Yihang Intelligent to carry out low altitude tourism projects.
However, the future of flying cars also faces significant challenges. In September 2022, Google's co founder Larry Page announced the closure of the air taxi company Kittyhawk, which was founded in 2010 to explore the eV-T-OL market. However, it has been proven that the challenges in this field are greater than expected, and aerial taxis have experienced multiple accidents during testing, which has raised public concerns about their safety.