TRANSPORT CANADA CIVIL AVIATION ISSUES SPECIAL FLIGHT OPERATIONS CERTIFICATE FOR EHANG HOLDINGS AUTONOMOUS AERIAL VEHICLE TECHNOLOGY
Aug 25, 2020
We recently learned through the Composites World newsletter that EHang Holdings Ltd. (Guangzhou, China), an autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) technology platform company, announced on July 29 that its EHang 216 has obtained a Special Flight Operations Certificate (SFOC) issued by the Transport Canada Civil Aviation (TCCA), the civil aviation authority in Canada. The company says this is another milestone in regulatory breakthroughs for EHang 216 and the first of this kind of permit for periodic operations of passenger-grade AAVs in North America.
With the certificate, EHang says trial flights of its EHang 216 AAVs can be routinely conducted in the Québec province. The company notes that last September it was invited to showcase its aircraft at the International Civil Aviation Organization’s (ICAO) 75th anniversary ceremony in Québec, Canada. The EHang 216 AAV is said to have been highly appraised by ICAO and other aviation authorities from different countries, including the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, the Civil Aviation Authority of Norway and the Civil Aviation Administration of China. According to EHang, this achievement is also an important foundation for future urban air mobility (UAM) operations in Canada.
We thought our Boating Industry Canada News Week Digest readers would find this interesting. In the future, could our boaters book an AAV flight from the office to the yacht club? Something to be aware of for a glimpse of the future.
