China's self-developed flying car has completed a public test flight, and the "flying" is not far from ordinary people!

Wan Da-hsien

2024-06-27 19:03Creators in the field of technology

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01 China's self-developed flying car AE200 successfully completed its first public test flight, marking a substantial step forward for the mainland's manned low-altitude aircraft.

02 At the same time, the successful test flight of Xpeng Huitian's Voyager X2 intelligent electric aircraft in the airport economic zone of Beijing Daxing Airport also shows that the mainland has made an important breakthrough in the field of flying cars.

03 Low-altitude economy usually refers to a comprehensive economic form that relies on low-altitude airspace and covers various low-altitude flight activities such as manning, cargo and other operations, which has huge economic value.

04In addition, there are many domestic and foreign companies that are developing flying cars, such as GOVE launched by GAC and EHang EH216-S.

05 The development of flying cars has benefited from the improvement and expansion of the new energy industry chain, and important breakthroughs have been made in batteries, motors, flight controllers and airframes.

Technical support is provided by Tencent Hybrid Model

China's self-developed "flying car" has completed its first public test flight, which is really not far from ordinary people.

Recently, the AE200 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft independently designed and developed by Geely's Wofei Changkong has successfully completed a series of public flight tests such as full-size, full-weight, and all-envelope tilt transition. At the same time, Xpeng Huitian's Voyager X2 intelligent electric aerial vehicle successfully flew in the airport economic zone of Beijing Daxing Airport. All this indicates that the mainland has taken another substantial step forward in manned low-altitude aircraft.

At the end of last year, the state listed the low-altitude economy as one of the strategic emerging industries. And this year, the low-altitude economy was also written into the government work report for the first time. At present, Hefei, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities are cooperating with relevant enterprises to build a "low-altitude flight model city". The low-altitude economy seems to have entered the fast lane of development.

Don't think that these are gimmicks, low-altitude economy usually refers to a comprehensive economic form based on low-altitude airspace, with aircraft as the main carrier, covering various low-altitude flight activities such as manning, cargo and other operations, and its business scope includes air taxis, low-altitude logistics and transportation, fire early warning, disaster prevention and mitigation and other fields. It can be seen that there is huge economic value in this.

For example, the "Implementation Plan for the Innovative Application of General Aviation Equipment (2024-2030)" jointly issued by multiple departments mentioned that it is planned to achieve urban air transportation, air logistics, and emergency rescue by 2027, and create a trillion-level market by 2030.

Imagine, one day in the future, open the mobile phone APP, book an unmanned aerial vehicle, and then board the plane at the designated place, and quickly send you to your destination, even in the morning and evening rush hours, you can reach a place dozens of kilometers away in 10 minutes in a few minutes.

And such a sci-fi scene may not take two or three years to achieve in our China.

Then the aforementioned AE200 is a 5-6 seater flying car, which can reach a cruising speed of 248 kilometers per hour and a maximum range of 200 kilometers. When it is officially operational, it will fly over the city at about 300 meters.

Its shape is more special, especially the total of eight oars, during the ascent, these eight oars will first face upward, after reaching a predetermined height, the middle four oars will tilt down into four propellers, driving the aircraft to fly horizontally. When landing, the eight oars will return to face upwards, which is quite special.

Then the successful test flight of AE200 is also the first electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft company in mainland China and the second in the world to complete this kind of test subject, which is gratifying.

Of course, in the follow-up, AE200 still needs to carry out a series of tests and test flights such as high temperature, low temperature, maximum speed flight and braking, reliable disposal of various emergency faults, etc., after completing the above work, it will have the opportunity to obtain the airworthiness certificate issued by the civil aviation department and enter mass production and use.

Electric VTOL aircraft have many advantages over traditional aircraft. On the one hand, it has a vertical take-off, no runway, no site restrictions, and can also cruise at high speeds. For example, the ground journey from Shenzhen to Zhuhai takes about 2.5 hours, while the eVTOL flight takes only 20 minutes. On the other hand, it has more cost advantages in operation, and after the official operation, it can also be easily charged, and it is green and environmentally friendly, low noise and zero emission.

Of course, in addition to the AE200 and the Voyager X2, there are many companies at home and abroad that are developing flying cars, for example, last year GAC launched a flying car GOVE.

There is also EHang's EH216-S, a flying car that has obtained the production license issued by the Civil Aviation Administration, becoming the world's first flying car product to obtain a mass production license, standard airworthiness certificate, and type certificate. It was also put on Taobao at a price of 2.39 million yuan. And it was also photographed in Luo Yonghao's live broadcast room, and the key is that EHang Intelligence also completed the order delivery.

So, in the field of flying cars, we have achieved a leading position again. Behind this, it will inevitably benefit from the improvement and growth of the new energy industry chain.

The battery, motor, flight controller and airframe are the four major modules of the flying car, among which the battery is far ahead. Last year, CATL launched a condensed matter battery with an energy density of up to 500Wh/kg, mainly for the flying car market, and other major domestic battery manufacturers also have various types of power battery products.

After all, the big one has C919, and the small one has DJI drones, although it can't be said that they can be directly applied, but they all belong to the same field, and even we can see the electric flying car as a super-large drone.

In terms of the body, in addition to the design, the material is also very important, and in the case of flying cars, carbon fiber is mainly used, which is also our strength.

Therefore, with a strong supply chain system, China's flying cars will develop so fast.

Perhaps it won't be a few years before we can experience for ourselves the extreme efficiency brought by low-altitude manned aircraft. And these images, which are usually seen in science fiction movies, will soon be played out before our eyes.

Of course, as a large aircraft carrying people and goods, it must face many problems if it wants to achieve large-scale commercial application, especially the safety issues are more complex, hardware, software, the system itself, weather, birds and other conditions are all risk factors, how to avoid it is very critical, and relevant laws and regulations also need to be improved in time. But as long as it is the joint efforts of the whole society and the whole industry, I think nothing cannot be overcome, and we Chinese have always had the ability to overcome all difficulties and obstacles. In short, what greets us is destined to be a better tomorrow.

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