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EHang’s Firefighting eVTOLs Wasted as Forest Fires Ravage China

Tough reg­u­la­tions lead­ing to even­tu­al full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion is vital for any new form of avi­a­tion trans­port, where safe­ty is absolute para­mount. Yet, on occa­sions, these strin­gent rules can also become its worst ene­my.

A good exam­ple is in Chi­na where parts of the coun­try has been hit by record-break­ing high tem­per­a­tures, unseen in 60 years, that have last­ed for over two months. This heat­wave lead­ing to drought has mir­rored areas of Europe.

Reser­voirs have dried (Jiangxi Province) along­side severe pow­er short­ages (Sichuan) where hydro-elec­tric­i­ty makes up 80 per­cent of its pow­er source; as well as some of the coun­try’s worst and most wide­spread for­est fires in its his­to­ry. For exam­ple, cities in the south­west­ern part of Chi­na includ­ing Chongqing, Luzhou in Sichuan and Chishui in Guizhou, have been bat­tling fires caused by lack of rain and extreme heat for many weeks.

In Chongqing alone, between August 18th and 21st, at least five exten­sive and sep­a­rate blazes rav­aged dis­tricts includ­ing Jiangjin, Dazu, Tongliang, Ba’nan and Nanchuan, adding more woes to the already-strained CCP.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCCtEYo38EU&t=1s

Here was a great oppor­tu­ni­ty for local gov­ern­ments to ask EHang to deploy its 216F fire­fight­ing craft, but due to not gain­ing full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, yet, reg­u­la­tions for­bade it. Instead, it remains tri­als, tri­als, tri­als for the AAV com­pa­ny.

More recent­ly, EHang demon­strat­ed its spe­cial­ist craft to the Nan’an Dis­trict For­est Fire Fight­ing Com­mand Office of Chongqing City. Dig­ni­taries and local politi­cians were high­ly impressed by the eVTOL’s abil­i­ties and said fur­ther stud­ies would be high on the agen­da. For it quick­ly became obvi­ous how the 216F could great­ly assist in for­est fire pre­ven­tion. In addi­tion, the EHang 216 and 216L (logis­tics ver­sion) AAVs have proven they can be excel­lent assis­tors.

It must be so frus­trat­ing for the com­pa­ny. Oppor­tu­ni­ties to deploy its craft for human­i­tar­i­an pur­pose go beg­ging, while the CAAC con­tin­ue to hum and haw over giv­ing EHang full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion. How many tri­als and demon­stra­tions must the com­pa­ny car­ry out to prove its craft safe­ty?

EHang repeat­ed­ly state full cer­ti­fi­ca­tion will occur some­time this year. Let us hope this isn’t just blus­ter and cry wolf, where in twelve mon­th’s time fur­ther human­i­tar­i­an oppor­tu­ni­ties go amiss as the CAAC con­tin­ues to drag its feet and be over­cau­tious.

For more infor­ma­tion

https://www.ehang.com/ehangaav/

(News Source: Insight Cre­ator)

(Pics: EHang)

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