Chinese eVTOL aircraft firm completes first trial flight across the Yangtze River

A ton-class electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developed by Chinese start-up AutoFlight successfully completed a trial flight crossing the Yangtze River in Nanjing, East China's Jiangsu Province, on Thursday, which represents the latest progress in China's low-altitude economy development.

The flight, completed by AutoFlight's eVTOL aircraft christened Prosperity, has a total range of 25 kilometers and a duration of 10 minutes for a round trip. The ground distance between the two points of the flight is 20 kilometers and takes 25 minutes by car. The straight-line flight by the Prosperity only takes five minutes, cutting 80 percent of ground travel time, the company told the Global Times on Thursday.

The Prosperity eVTOL aircraft is equipped with a pure electric propulsion system, has a maximum take-off weight of 2,200 kg, and a speed of 200 kilometers per hour. It features a 5-seat cabin design and is planned to be deployed for commercial use in 2026.

It has low operation noise and emissions, as well as flexibility in taking off and landing. This kind of aircraft is also referred to as an "air taxi" and will be widely used in urban sightseeing and city-to-city commuting, according to AutoFlight.

Chinese enterprises and local governments have been accelerating the development of the low-altitude economy, as emphasized in the 2024 Government Work Report as one of the emerging and future-oriented industries.

In February this year, AutoFlight carried out an inter-city air-taxi flight from Shenzhen to Zhuhai, South China's Guangdong Province, cutting a two-hour drive to 20 minutes. Additionally, the company completed a 123-kilometer flight in the United Arab Emirates in May, marking the first long-distance ton-class eVTOL flight in the Middle East.

Guangzhou-based EHang Holdings, a Chinese urban air mobility technology platform company, obtained a production certificate for its EH216-S eVTOL aircraft from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, a world first, in April of this year.

Although eVTOLs have not yet entered the commercial operation stage, they have already received many overseas orders from Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, and Malaysia, He Tianxing, vice president of EHang Holdings, told the Global Times in a recent interview.

In terms of local governments, a working group in Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, focused on fostering the local low-altitude economy, released a set of draft air traffic rules within the city on July 13. This was seen as China's first traffic rule targeting low-altitude aircraft, according to media reports.