The General Office of the State Council of the PRC has recently issued a circular proposing to accelerate the strategic development of Urban Air Mobility (UAM) in China. The circular urges to bring the development of UAM into China’s National Strategies and to formulate relevant policies and standards to promote the healthy development of the industry. Such policies and standards, once made, are expected to lay a solid regulatory foundation that should pave the way for China to become the world’s largest UAM market.
The circular also emphasizes the need to speed up the legislative process and promulgation of the official Interim Measures for Flights Administration of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), to establish a comprehensive regulatory mechanism for UAVs.
Furthermore, the State Council’s circular highlights the potential application of firefighting UAVs. It calls for establishing industrial standards and regulations to facilitate technological innovations that will promote industrial and practical applications of UAVs in aerial firefighting use cases.
“This circular issued by the State Council reflects the Chinese government’s great emphasis and strategic support for the new UAM industry. This will undoubtedly fuel the rapid development of UAM in China,” said EHang’s Founder, Chairman and CEO, Huazhi Hu. “As a leader in the global UAM industry and the only company authorized to initiate the Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) airworthiness program for UAM by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), we will seize this opportunity to strengthen our leadership in technologies and innovations based on the national policy and strive to assist regulators in establishing relevant regulations and standards. More efforts will be made to enhance the innovation and applications of our UAM technologies in specific use cases such as aerial firefighting. Furthermore, we look forward to offering UAM operational services to the society soon, leading the vigorous development of the industry in China and globally.”
