ARIDGE’s chief shows its three-site aircraft test network

ARIDGE’s chief executive, Zhao Deli, has shared a video showing how the flying-car maker tests its aircraft across three sites. He says the Land Aircraft Carrier’s aircraft went through more than 5,000 experiments and more than 10,000 test flights before anyone flew on board.

The video opens with Zhao being asked whether he was scared when he took the aircraft’s first test flight himself. “What’s there to be scared of?” he answers. Before anyone flies on board, he says, the aircraft goes through a long process of experiments and test flights.

ARIDGE says its test network has more than 50 laboratories and covers more than 3,000 test projects. Its three sites occupy more than 75,000 square metres: Tianhe and Huangpu in Guangzhou, and Sanshui in Foshan, which opened in September 2023. Tianhe uses computer simulations to test the flight controls, navigation and power systems. Huangpu and Sanshui test the hardware, from batteries, motors and rotors to whole aircraft.

The frame of ARIDGE’s aircraft, with its four folded arms, hung in a blue steel test rig and connected to dozens of cables. — ARIDGE’s whole-aircraft strength test. Picture from ARIDGE, carried by Gasgoo, November 2026.

The video shows several of these tests. A tower spins rotors more than 6 metres across and measures up to 1,000 kg of lift. The strength-test rig in the picture applies force to the whole aircraft through 12 channels, while another 352 channels record data. A climate chamber runs from −40°C to 90°C.

On a test bench called an “iron bird”, engineers run the flight controls, power system and batteries together. They deliberately introduce faults to test the systems on the ground. ARIDGE also mounts a whole aircraft on a tall frame on the back of a truck. With the motors running, this copies the conditions of flight without leaving the road.

In October, ARIDGE’s chief financial officer said the aircraft had completed the Chinese regulator’s test flights and was waiting for its final type certificate, the regulator’s approval of the design.