MAIDEN VOYAGE IN THE AIR
Treetop Tourism EHang partners with Giancarlo Zema Design Group to build an ecosustainable vertiport as an aerial hub for tourists.
Urban air mobility is perhaps one of the most
restaurant offering panoramic views of the
significant advances in transportation in recent
surrounding landscape, with the venture opening
years, with electric vertical take-off and landing
up opportunities for a range of facilities including
(eVTOL) aircraft capable of reducing road
bars, events spaces and even accommodation.
congestion and cutting pollution. And while the
GZDG’s concept will serve EHang’s electric
technology and investment for such vehicles is
passenger-grade autonomous aerial vehicles,
in place, there’s a notable lack of infrastructure
which have been designed as an eco-friendly,
to serve the sector.
low-altitude,
transportation solution. They feature a double-
specialist in autonomous aerial vehicles – has
curved windshield for wider vision and a better
partnered with Italian architecture firm Giancarlo
view, a luggage trunk and ergonomic seats
Zema Design Group (GZDG) to develop a vertiport
inspired by F1 sports cars.
in Italy.
EHang and GZDG believe that their vertiports
Inspired by Africa’s native Baobab tree, GZDG
can serve as aerial hubs for tourists, taking the
created a 30m-high tower topped by a podium,
pressure off densely-packed urban zones where
with the steel structure wrapped in vertical
street-level development space is hard to come
bands of curving laminated wood. The vertiport
by. They aim to take their concept global with
is clad in photovoltaic panels that can generate
sites planned in Europe and Southeast Asia,
over 300kW of electric power per day, while the
introducing transport solutions and public
platform is equipped with fully independent
facilities at each destination.
plug-and-play ports that can be used to recharge EHang’s passenger-grade vehicles. The take off-and-landing platform is set on the rooftop above a café, waiting room and 200m2
090
short-and-medium-haul
With that in mind, EHang Holdings – a
