Chinese team creates eVTOL with futuristic design

In the field of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, we see a variety of novel designs, and a new product built by a Chinese team offers a new one.

On June 3, a low-altitude economy investment promotion event was held in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, where a local company demonstrated an eVTOL with a flying saucer shape, according to a June 4 report in the local Shenzhen News.

The eVTOL can take off and land on the water and is currently used mainly for sightseeing tours and performances.

The core research and development team from Beihang University and Northwestern Polytechnical University has been working on the vehicle for more than three years, according to the report.

The eVTOL is equipped with 12 propellers and can fly for up to 15 minutes and reach an altitude of 200 meters, according to the report.

It has a maximum horizontal flight speed of up to 50 kilometers per hour and can switch between autopilot and manual pilot modes.

The report did not provide more information about the eVTOL, a video of which was shared by Nanfang Daily.

Last November, another local team unveiled a two-seat engineering prototype of a manned split flying vehicle, the world's first such product with a split design.

The flying vehicle consists of three separate modules: an autonomous vertical takeoff and landing vehicle, an intelligent control cockpit, and an autopilot chassis, capable of driving on land as well as switching between airborne flight modes.

XPeng Aeroht, a subsidiary of XPeng, wants to build manned flying vehicles based on cars, and its X2 tested a flight over the Yellow River on June 5.

(Image credit: XPeng Aeroht)

Ehang, for its part, is building an autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV) closer to a helicopter, and the company said last April that it had received a pre-order for 100 EH216s from Indonesian airline Prestige Aviation.

On July 27, 2022, Volkswagen Group China unveiled its first eVTOL manned vehicle prototype, the V.MO, which is also close to a helicopter in appearance.