The Chinese company AeroHT previewed some of the The strangest and potentially disruptive vehicles of 2023 during its parent company Xpeng's technology day last October. We had to stifle a laugh when we saw the Land Aircraft Carrier (LAC), a six-wheeled, off-road van-like vehicle that carried and launched its own fold-out personal eVTOL.
At the time, it was a pretty rendering and a fun exercise in wild imagination, but AeroHT quickly followed up with a production announcement at this year's CES. And yes, they're serious – Xpeng is now moving forward with the Chinese airworthiness certification process needed to develop the most compelling part of this dual-mode vehicle: the two-seat, foldable, multi-rotor eVTOL.
Looking at this header photo of what AeroHT calls a modular flying car, it's all too easy to drift into a daydream of off-roading to the edge of a distant cliff or canyon , perhaps the Grand Canyon itself, before taking off on a two-person helicopter ride to render this superlative landscape three-dimensional in a way currently impossible.
XPENG AEROHT Modular Flying Car
It's also easy to imagine the LAC being used for wilderness search and rescue operations, on which the glassy little eVTOL could serve as a means of proceeding when the terrain becomes completely impassable, even for a six-wheeled bull equipped with an all-electric vehicle. torque to each wheel.
The eVTOL could also be used to visually scan large areas of terrain before returning to 6×6 to continue the mission on the ground. Maybe Hyundai's robot rovers jumping off rocks could even intervene if necessary. The whole thing seems like a ridiculous sci-fi fantasy.
Xpeng AeroHT
But apparently that's not the case; AeroHT says it is readying the land-based aircraft carrier for pre-order by the fourth quarter of 2024, likely with something resembling a real model name. He even mentioned his intention to start individual deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2025.
As such, the aircraft certification process has been initiated. At the end of March, AeroHT had its type certification application accepted by the Central and South China Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC). This allows the air half of the LAC duo (designated X-3F) to move forward and apply for a certificate of airworthiness to begin flight testing.
Xpeng AeroHT
It remains to be seen exactly how this thing might end up being certified for sale, or what kind of license you might need, if any – but the CAAC has shown it's willing to fast-track eVTOL certification in the name of competitive advantage.
eHang's two-seater air taxis are already fully certified and in commercial service in China, while the FAA and EASA are likely at least a year away from certifying an eVTOL aircraft in the United States or Europe. Oh, and the eHang plane is fully autonomous – a concept that seems to be a decade away from even being considered in the United States at this point.
As a child of the 80s, I can't help but think of those awesome MASK multi-vehicles we loved in the Saturday morning cartoons. My favorite was Alligator, a Jeep CJ that split its body and chassis like a pair of crocodile jaws to pull a mini speedboat. Similarly, AeroHT's LAC design features two useful ships that combine to surpass the sum of their individual parts, creating a new class of personal super-transporter.
Xpeng AeroHT
The land vessel is a van-style people/cargo transporter with an extended-range electric 6-wheel drive. The extra length afforded by the dual rear axle allows it to swallow the compact eVTOL two seats behind the second row of its five-person cabin. In addition to six-wheel drive, a rear-wheel steering system helps improve off-road handling.
The X3-F air module is, of course, an all-electric craft with vertical takeoff and landing capabilities, ready for low-altitude flight. It docks and loads onto the ground-based hybrid “mothership” before taking off into the sky, its 270-degree panoramic cockpit serving both pilot and passenger during search and rescue missions as well as leisure tours.
It is designed for manual and automated flight and has six distributed electric propulsion propellers – enough to meet safety requirements governing single failures.
Xpeng AeroHT
AeroHT still has to move forward with the separate automotive certification process for the ground-based six-wheeled vehicle – and at some point it will have to move beyond cool renderings and show us actual hardware.
If this machine were built anywhere other than China, the twin administrative nightmares of automobile and aeronautical certification would place the land-based air carrier at least a few years away from reality. But Xpeng is a rising multibillion-dollar force in a country that has decided to lead the way in cutting-edge technology — and the company appears deadly serious about its flying car and multi-mode vehicle ambitions.
AeroHT is already well advanced with its standalone software eVTOLto the point where it is demonstrated its fail-safe ballistic parachute in action on a full-size prototype. This has also already made us eat our doubt words at least once before, after flying a prototype of a frankly scandalous aircraft foldable electric flying supercar it's just as absurd as the land air carrier. Look:
Flying car test vehicle successfully completed maiden flight
AeroHT clearly doesn't care what we, or anyone else, thinks is possible. So what the hell, let's take this crazy undertaking at face value and assume that this team is actually going to make the dual-mode ground air carrier happen, either in time for 2025 or shortly thereafter. And hats off if they succeed, it certainly makes us dream of new ways to explore the great outdoors!
Source: Xpeng AeroHT
