Pantuo Aviation Demonstrator T1

Demonstrator T1
Pantuo Aviation
Longhua, Shanghai, China
www.pantuo.mobi

Founded in 2019, Pantuo Aviation located in Shanghai, China, was created by a group of aviation and electric vehicle professionals to develop advance electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) passenger aircraft and other key technologies for Urban Air Mobility (UAM). The company's goal is to manufacture and produce highly secure, intelligent, zero carbon eVTOL passenger aircraft.

Pantuo Aviation announced on June 6, 2022 that the Demonstrator T1 made its first flight and provided a video on YouTube of the historic flight. The company has provided very little information for the demonstrator's first flight such as its expected cruise speed, range or any other information. It looks as if the demonstrator will not carry any passengers. Hopefully, the company will provide more information about their demonstrator aircraft in the future.

The Demonstrator T1 is a remote-controlled ½ scale eVTOL demonstrator aircraft with canard tilt-wings and each tilt-wing has multiple large diameter ducted fans. There are a total of six ducted fans on the front wings and a total of 10 ducted fans on the rear set of wings. The aircraft has a total of 16 electric motors. The entire aircraft is powered by battery packs. The company has stated their eVTOL tilt-wing aircraft is the first eVTOL of this type made in China.

Instead of each ducted fan turning independently of each other, each wing on each side of the aircraft are tilting wings. The speed of each of the ducted fans and tilting wings are the aircraft's primary way of maneuvering the aircraft in any direction. It is unknown at this time if the tilt-wings can rotate independently of each other, for precision maneuvering.

The landing gear on the demonstrator aircraft has a fixed landing structure made of tubing with four fixed landing blocks. As this is an eVTOL aircraft, there is no need to have any standard landing gear like skid-type landing gear or wheeled landing gear on this prototype aircraft.

The company's production aircraft is called the Pantala Concept H and is an autonomous eVTOL passenger aircraft which holds five people, with the same type of ducted fans in the wings and is twice as large as the demonstrator. The Pantala Concept H  production aircraft is estimated to have a cruise speed of 300 km/h (186 mph) and a range of 250 km (155 miles).

As of June 2022, no timeline from the company has been estimated for serial production to begin.

Specifications:

• Aircraft type: Half-scale eVTOL demonstrator
• Piloting: Remote-controlled
• Capacity: No passengers
• Cruise speed: Unknown
• Range: Unknown
• Flight Time: Unknown
• Ducted fans: 16 ducted fans
• Electric Motors: 16 electric motors
• Power source: Battery packs
• Fuselage: Unknown
• Windows: None
• Wings: Canard tilt-wings with ducted fans inside the wings
• Landing gear: Four fixed landing blocks
• Safety features: Distributed Electric Propulsion (DEP), provides safety through redundancy for its passengers and/or cargo. DEP means having multiple propellers (or ducted fans) and motors on the aircraft so if one or more propellers (ducted fans) or motors fail, the other working propellers (or ducted fans) and motors can safely land the aircraft.

Resources:

• Pantuo Aviation website
• Pantuo Aviation Twitter
• Pantuo Aviation YouTube Channel
• Pantuo Aviation LinkedIn
• Video: Pantala Concept H, Pantuo Aviation, Sep. 26, 2021
• Video: A Vision Beyond Time, Pantuo Aviation, Oct. 7, 2021
• Article: Welcome to China’s “Pantala H Concept” latest eVTOL, Urban Air Mobility News, Oct. 11, 2021
• Article: Two new eVTOL projects emerge from China, New Atlas, Oct. 14, 2021
• Article: China’s Pantuo Joins eVTOL Race, Aviation Week, Nov. 4, 2021
• Article: Pantuo Aviation unveils China's answer to the Lilium Jet, New Atlas, Nov. 30, 2021
• Article: China's Rising eVTOL Industry, Vertiflite, Nov/Dec 2021
• Video: Off the ground, Pantuo Aviation, June 6, 2022