CAAC invites feedback on flying car’s type certification conditions
March 18, 2025
The Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC)’s aircraft airworthiness certification department has opened a consultation period for the special conditions the Xpeng AEROHT will be certified under.
Chinese company Xpeng Aeroht, developer of the ‘AEROHT’ system, bills itself as “the largest flying car company in Asia and an integral part of the Xpeng Motors ecosystem”. The AEROHT comprises a six-wheeled road-going vehicle (dubbed the ‘Land Aircraft Carrier’) with a rear-mounted two-seat eVTOL module. This possess six roof-mounted arms each equipped with two-bladed propellers.
Xpeng’s self-styled ‘flying car’ (notably, the aerial element only) prototype module completed its first piloted test flight in 2018, with a second variant (X2) making its maiden flight in 2021. In January 2023, this secured a Chinese ‘special flight permit,’ subsequently receiving regulatory acceptance for its type certification application in March 2024. Its first global manned public flight was in November 2024 at the Guangzhou Auto Show.
Given the X3-F’s novel “design features and application scenarios,” CAAC plans to issue “special conditions for this type of aircraft as the basis for carrying out certification work,” the regulator explained. To date, only one eVTOL (Chinese OEM EHang’s remotely piloted two-seat EH216-S) has received CAAC type certification, which it gained in October 2023; 20 months after the CAAC published the EH216-S’ own Special Conditions.
Draft special conditions are now open for public comments for ten working days, with CAAC soliciting responses from all regional civil aviation administrations, general aviation companies, AVIC, COMAC, research institutes and universities.
The X3-F is an entirely separate project from the 1950s Douglas X-3 Stiletto, an experimental 1950s jet aircraft intended to explore supersonic design characteristics and propulsion studies.
