EHang showed air taxi with wings.

The Chinese company EHang has introduced an autonomous air taxi of an aircraft type for flights between cities. The aircraft can take off and land vertically, and during the main phase of flight, it uses a wing and a pusher propeller for efficient propulsion. The full-size prototype has already made its maiden flight.

Air taxi is a collective term commonly understood as a small electric aircraft capable of taking off and landing vertically in a small area and carrying several people within or near a city. It is assumed that the most widespread air taxi will be in megacities with busy roads, because such transport will move around traffic jams. Depending on the tasks, the developers choose different air taxi designs: for small flights within the city, a multicopter is enough, and for longer flights, the design of an aircraft or tiltrotor is more optimal.

One of the leading companies in the field of air taxi, China’s EHang, used a multicopter design in its passenger and cargo vehicles, and now has shown a new VT-30 electric air taxi with a wing. It is built according to the aircraft layout with two longitudinal beams for vertical propellers and a Λ-shaped tail assembly. There are four propellers on the beams, used during vertical takeoff and landing, and one pushing propeller is installed behind the cockpit, which starts working after takeoff. By design, the VT-30 is closest to the American Cora air taxi.

A cabin for two passengers is located in the center of the device. According to the developers, the VT-30 does not need a pilot and is capable of performing all phases of flight autonomously.

The device’s batteries are enough for 100 minutes of flight, which allows it to fly up to 300 kilometers. EHang is positioning the VT-30 not as a replacement for its city air taxi, but as an add-on for flights between cities with the ability to land right in the city, and not on the outskirts, as is the case with conventional aviation.

By the time of the announcement, the company’s engineers had already assembled a full-size prototype air taxi and tested it in vertical take-off and landing mode without switching to horizontal flight.

EHang has already launched sightseeing flights with its multicopter air taxi in China and plans to launch air travel in Europe, in particular in Austria and Spain.

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