On January 7, the "2024 National UAV and Unmanned Systems Industry Spring Festival Group Meeting and the 9th UAV 100-person Meeting" was successfully held at Caesars Palace, Window of the World, Shenzhen. Nearly a thousand people from drone, unmanned system, and robotics company CEOs, industry experts, association heads, and analysts from all over the country gathered in Shenzhen to discuss new ideas for drones to lead the development of low-altitude economy.
The conference specially invited Jiang Jun, founding partner and CMO of Shanghai Shide Technology Co., Ltd., to attend the conference. He gave a speech on "Developing High-Performance Air Taxi eVTOL for Commercialization" at the conference.
The following speech content was compiled and published by "International Unmanned Systems".
Dear seniors and friends, hello everyone, I mainly focus on the commercial development of high-performance air taxi eVTOL, and share with you the technical information of the eVTOL industry and the latest advances in technology.
In recent years, the eVTOL industry has achieved rapid development, especially after the country included the low-altitude economy as a strategic emerging industry. eVTOL has also become one of the more eye-catching directions in the low-altitude economy. What is this direction? One reason is that in 2016 UBER released the "Elevate" white paper, which began to accelerate industry development. Chinese companies have begun R&D, manufacturing and large-scale financing in recent years.
So what is an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft? Its transformation is to electrify and upgrade the original small general aviation aircraft so that it can take off and land vertically. In the future, it will become an air travel vehicle for the public in intercity and urban areas.
Many institutions, including Morgan Stanley and Roland Berger, have previously made predictions that the economy will reach trillions of dollars by 2040 or 2035. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why it is an important sector in strategic emerging industries.
Compared with traditional general aviation, what changes does eVTOL bring?
The first is vertical takeoff and landing. Not relying on runways reduces land occupation to a certain extent.
The second is low noise. To prevent noise pollution; eVTOL has only 70 decibels of noise during vertical takeoff and landing, and only 40-45 decibels of noise during cruising 100 meters above the ground.
The third is high safety, close to the safety factor of civil aviation aircraft.
The fourth is partial intelligence and easy operation. The relative number of pilots in my country is smaller than that in European and American countries. Due to the high requirements for pilots, the reality is that it is difficult to meet the demand for future commercial operations. However, eVTOL has greatly simplified flight requirements and is conducive to improving the country's ability to train pilots.
Fifth, the manufacturing cost is significantly lower than that of helicopters. At present, the models operated by domestic general aviation companies are basically H135 helicopters or Bell 429s, with a cost of 50 million to 60 million yuan, and even Agustan helicopters costing more than 100 million yuan are used. After eVTOL is mass-produced in the future, its purchase price will be several million.
Sixth, the operating cost is low and the maintenance cost is low. There is a saying in the helicopter industry that once the rotor sounds, there is a lot of gold. The cost of a helicopter flight is tens of thousands per hour, and the fee for collecting passengers is generally 50,000 yuan per hour. With the large-scale mass production of eVTOL, people's travel costs will be reduced to about 200-300 yuan per 100 kilometers, and the time cost is guaranteed. It only takes more than 20 minutes to travel from Guangzhou to Shenzhen.
So what kind of problems does eVTOL solve? Maybe different companies have different ideas. Shi's Technology believes that the greatest value of eVTOL is to expand the public's travel and living circle, and safely and quickly transport people from point a to point b. .
Each means of transportation has its own corresponding attributes. Within 10 kilometers, we can choose to ride a battery scooter; between 200 kilometers and 1,000 kilometers, we will choose high-speed rail; for travel distances over 1,000 kilometers, we will choose airplanes, and eVTOL is the most suitable travel distance. It is located in a metropolitan area of 30-150 kilometers, similar to the relatively dense urban agglomerations of the Yangtze River Delta and the Greater Bay Area. This drives population mobility and indirectly promotes the development of the regional economy. Therefore, eVTOL provides everyone with a very suitable choice. .
Many people will ask if the distance between 400 and 500 kilometers is not suitable. In fact, there is demand, but it is far from as strong as the demand within 150 kilometers. According to current technology predictions, by comparing population, economic scale and market flow, China's eVTOL market size can reach 500 billion yuan in 2035.
China’s eVTOL industry chain is poised for development
In December last year, the country's low-altitude economy was listed as a strategic emerging industry, which also heralded the eVTOL industry's potential to explode. It can be seen that many local governments have recently clearly proposed comprehensive development goals for eVTOL. You can see that the Shenzhen People's Congress issued the "Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Low-altitude Economic Industry Promotion Regulations", including a total of 8 districts that have issued policies related to investment promotion for low-altitude economy and eVTOL. In addition, Shanghai has issued a notice on the "Shanghai Action Plan to Create a Future Industrial Innovation Highland, Develop and Strengthen Future Industrial Clusters", It is clearly proposed to develop tilt-rotor and other manned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft. Guangzhou Huangpu District also issued the "Implementation Rules for Several Measures of Guangzhou Development District (Huangpu District) to Promote High-quality Development of Low-altitude Economy", which lists a lot of industrial policies to support eVTOL.
At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China jointly issued the "Green Aviation Manufacturing Development Outline", proposing the development goal of eVTOL pilot operation in 2025.
The first domestic enterprise to develop tilt rotors
As the first domestic innovative enterprise to independently develop a tilt-rotor manned electric aircraft, it is also the first domestic enterprise to successfully complete the flight of a tilt-rotor prototype. Shide has corresponding testing bases at its Shanghai headquarters, Hengdian, Zhejiang, and Ninghai, and has completed three rounds of financing so far. The mission of Shidai Technology is to provide safe and convenient air travel services to the society.
Next, let’s briefly explain the core design indicators of the E20 eVTOL. This is a pure electric eVTOL configured as a tilt rotor. It has a total of five seats. One pilot plus four passengers. The payload is 450 kg, which is quite With five people and 50 kilograms of luggage, the cruising speed can reach 260 kilometers per hour, and the maximum speed can reach 320 kilometers per hour. According to the current battery energy density, the maximum range can reach 200 kilometers. If there are better batteries in the future As a development, we can either fly farther and carry a higher load, which is consistent with the current flying height of helicopters. Generally, our cruising altitude remains between 300 meters and 600 meters, but we can fly as high as 3,000 meters.
In the development of recent years, Shi's Technology has steadily promoted various research and development work and achieved certain results. In 2021, 25% of the scaled aircraft test flight tests were completed; in 2022, 50% of the scaled aircraft test flight tests were completed; in 2023 The final assembly of the full-size prototype rolled off the assembly line in 2018, and the full-size frame aircraft flight test was completed at the same time. In October last year, the Technology E20 eVTOL full-size prototype completed the first round of flight testing.
At the same time, our aircraft obtained various special flight certificates from the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and also completed various experiments on the ground, including tilt tests on the ground.
This year, we will complete its complete tilt transition test flight. If you have time to travel to Hengdian, you are welcome to come and see our aircraft on site. It is a pure carbon fiber eVTOL.
At the end of October last year, the E20 eVTOL model TC application was also accepted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China. At the same time, airworthiness certification also reached strategic cooperation with the National Key Laboratory of Civil Aviation University of China, and jointly promoted the airworthiness certification of the entire aircraft. In terms of pilot training, It has also reached a strategic cooperation with the Civil Aviation Flight University of China. In the future, Chinese civil aviation pilots will train eVTOL pilots.
Many people will ask me why I am developing a tilt-rotor eVTOL, not a multi-rotor, or other configurations. In fact, I would like to share with you the content of this industry.
First, our team has been in the entire industry for a long time and has a deep enough understanding of the industry. We have also witnessed the ups and downs of this industry many times. We can see that EHang Intelligent began to develop eVTOL in 2016 and has It was listed in 2019. However, the outbreak began in foreign countries in 2016. In 2021, there were hundreds of eVTOL companies, and several listed companies appeared. In China, only a few companies are developing eVTOL. As 2021 includes Shide, Fengfei, and Xpeng Huitian released financing information, and many investment banks began to notice the development of the eVTOL industry. By 2023, JOBY airworthiness certification has entered the third stage, and CP approval has been completed. After that, it will reach the fourth stage. The airworthiness certification of aviation and the introduction of various policies have attracted great attention from capital, so that the eVTOL industry can now develop in depth.
Only eVTOLs with airworthiness certificates are safe
After in-depth market research, we found that there are obvious differences between customer needs and user needs. What do customers need? The first is safety, the second is low noise, and the third is good economy.
What is safety? There has never been a saying that multi-rotors are safer than composite wings or safer than tilt-rotors. In fact, any aircraft without certification is unsafe. Only certification can prove that it is safe.
The second is low noise. The electrification of eVTOL can reduce its noise. Through the design of the propeller, further noise reduction processing can be carried out.
The third is good economics, such as low purchase cost, fast flight speed, large load-to-weight ratio, ability to pull more, fast charging speed, and small footprint.
For users, the needs are also very simple, as long as they are safe, low-priced, and fast airplanes. Are there any differences in safety between multi-rotor, compound wing and tilt-rotor? Actually no. As long as you can prove that it has passed airworthiness certification, it is safe. The only difference is that the application scenarios corresponding to different configurations are different.
For example, EHang is suitable for low-altitude tourism in scenic spots, and eVTOL with wings is suitable for intercity air taxis. Overseas, you can see that listed companies such as JOBY and LILIUM have developed tilt-rotors, but many companies have not come up with it all at once. As for the research and development of tilt rotors, it has gradually evolved from other configurations to develop tilt rotors, including the fifth generation of composite wings developed by WISK, which have also been converted to tilt rotors.
To develop eVTOL, you must first have the ability to build an aircraft, not a drone. There is an essential difference in safety between the two. The key factor is whether the R&D team has a background in large aircraft or general aviation aircraft OEMs. On this basis, we then consider the ability configuration of team members, such as understanding of the three-electric system and fly-by-wire flight control, and then add overall, aerodynamic, structure, strength, flight control, avionics, etc. Therefore, manned eVTOL is essentially an aircraft, which can be understood as at least a Part 23 fixed-wing aircraft that uses new energy power and is capable of vertical takeoff and landing.
Why are manned driving and not driverless driving being developed? What we are doing today is "Wei Xiaoli" in the sky, not Waymo in the sky. It may take 10, 15 or even 20 years to have a fully autonomous manned aircraft, so this industry will not be built overnight.
What we need to solve today is an eVTOL that can be piloted to achieve safe flight. This requires the joint efforts of multiple parties. Through the simplified flight SVO (Simplified Vehicle Operations) mode, and then gradually increase its automatic flight capabilities through AI pilots, and finally supporting supporting The maturity of the ATC (air traffic control) system and related laws, as well as the improvement of public safety awareness, has turned it into a fully autonomous eVTOL, so today the manned and manned path will be easier to implement than other paths.
Why can't the speed be lower? Low speed affects the operator's operational efficiency. As you may all know, the speed of a helicopter is about 200 kilometers per hour. As an innovative product, eVTOL’s flight performance cannot be lower than that of a traditional helicopter. Therefore, the cruising speed of the tilt rotor must be maintained at 260 kilometers per hour to bring more benefits. Great operational efficiency.
In addition, the advantage of the tilt rotor is that it has a high load-to-weight ratio. It can carry five people at the same range and the aircraft is lighter. Comparing Joby's latest data, the maximum take-off weight is 2.4 tons, the payload is 450 kilograms, and the load-to-load ratio is 18.8%. With the current technology, the load ratio of other configurations cannot exceed it. If other configurations are to accommodate five people, the aircraft may have to reach the 3-ton level.
In terms of a safe and reliable power system, the large-diameter, low-speed five-blade propeller can ensure low noise and is the best choice for tilting rotors. Currently, the motor electronic control of France's Safran is used. Of course, we are also looking forward to the future. There are more high-quality supply chains in the country; another point is how to improve operational efficiency, which is the charging time that few people may consider. This is very important, because only when airplanes keep flying in the sky can they help our operations. In order to make more money, the current model uses an 800-volt high-voltage platform, which greatly shortens the charging time.
The last one is that the wings of the aircraft cannot be too large, because the larger the wings, the larger the area and the greater the impact on the entire operation. The wingspan of the E20 eVTOL is 12 meters, and the existing helicopter pads can be reused. .
The above is a brief summary of the research and development process in the past few years, for communication only. Finally, this industry is in its early stages, and I hope to dream together and grow together with everyone.
Thanks.