ARIDGE, the flying car company affiliated with XPeng, signed a cooperation agreement with the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah that makes it the founding partner of an advanced air mobility test zone in the northern UAE.
The company describes the arrangement as a regulatory sandbox under the oversight of the country’s General Civil Aviation Authority and the first step toward an inter-emirate demonstration route to Abu Dhabi.
The agreement was signed at the Ruler’s palace in Saqr bin Mohammed City in the presence of Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Supreme Council Member and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, during his reception of ARIDGE founder Zhao Deli and an accompanying delegation.
Ismail Hassan Al-Balushi, Director-General of the Ras Al Khaimah Transport Authority and Acting Director-General of the RAK Department of Civil Aviation, signed for the emirate. Han Juexian, ARIDGE’s Chief Representative for the Middle East, signed for the company.
Two Versions of the Same Agreement
The emirate and the company described the deal differently.
The Ras Al Khaimah government’s statement, carried by the state news agency WAM on Thursday, calls it a cooperation agreement between RAKTA, the civil aviation department and ARIDGE “to develop, test and implement advanced air mobility solutions.”
ARIDGE becomes founding partner of a Ras Al Khaimah advanced air mobility test zone and the first company to establish an operational presence there, by allocating aircraft and a specialised team to the emirate.
The zone is meant to validate airspace requirements, operating procedures and safety standards, with transport, tourism, logistics and emergency response named as possible applications subject to regulatory approval.
The statement does not mention the GCAA, a sandbox or Abu Dhabi.
ARIDGE’s own release, calls it a strategic cooperation agreement and goes considerably further.
It says the two parties will “jointly establish an Advanced Air Mobility regulatory sandbox in the UAE” under “the full oversight” of the GCAA, “while simultaneously advancing the planning and implementation of an inter-emirate demonstration route connecting Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah.”
It describes ARIDGE as “the first Chinese flying car company to enter a national-level regulatory sandbox in the Middle East” and the sandbox as “the world’s first flying car testing sandbox dedicated to personal low-altitude flight.”
The GCAA has issued no statement of its own that could be found, and no Abu Dhabi authority is named as a party to the route. Both of the company’s superlatives are its own claims.
What the Testing Covers
Within the sandbox, which the company says RAKTA will lead, ARIDGE will “conduct flight validation under desert conditions, evaluate aircraft performance across representative operational scenarios and refine procedures within controlled airspace.”
Chinese coverage sourced to the company adds that the tests will gather data on power performance, endurance, airspace compatibility and operational safety risk under high temperature and blowing sand.
The Abu Dhabi route program “is expected to cover key operational areas, including flight planning, airspace coordination, ground support, passenger handling, aircraft turnaround and safety management.”
Neither release gives a date for the first flight, the number of aircraft to be based in the emirate, the size of the team, or which of ARIDGE’s two products will be used.
However, the company’s release carries an image of the A868, its hybrid-electric tilt-rotor.
“Over five years of cultivating the Middle East market, we have fully demonstrated that Chinese flying cars not only have the technical strength to fly overseas but can deeply adapt to international aviation regulatory rules,” Zhao said in a statement carried by Chinese media. “We will continue to advance our globalisation strategy steadily.”
Sheikh Saud said in the emirate’s release that “the true value of technology lies in the difference it makes to people’s lives and in its ability to support development and improve services.”
A Demonstration the Day Before
The signing followed a formation flight of two Land Aircraft Carrier air modules at Emirates Palace in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, at a reception hosted by the Chinese Embassy for the 77th anniversary of the People’s Republic and the 42nd anniversary of diplomatic relations with the UAE.
Ambassador Zeng Jixin attended, and the company’s release includes a photograph of him in the aircraft.
Weibo posts sourced to the company say the two aircraft were flown by Chinese pilots in restricted airspace under a special GCAA approval, with 600 guests present.
A Year of Groundwork
ARIDGE’s presence in Ras Al Khaimah dates to September 10, 2025, when RAKTA hosted the emirate’s first flying-vehicle trial at Al Jazirah Aviation Club under a cooperation agreement signed at the time.
The same day the company received a Special Flight Permit from the GCAA, which it described as the first for a Chinese flying-car company.
On October 12, 2025, in Dubai, it flew its first manned public demonstration outside China, rebranded from XPeng AeroHT to ARIDGE, and signed 600 orders with Ali & Sons of the UAE, Almana of Qatar, AlSayer of Kuwait and the UAE Chinese Business Council.
The X2 had made its first public flight in Dubai in 2022.
The company’s Guangzhou plant, with a nominal capacity of 10,000 units a year, rolled its first Land Aircraft Carrier flying module on November 3, 2025.
The type certificate application for the flying module was accepted by China’s Civil Aviation Administration in March 2024 and the production certificate application in May 2025.
Zhao has said he expects the type certificate in the second half of this year and deliveries by year-end. Reuters has reported early deliveries late in 2026 and full-scale delivery in 2027, with Middle East market entry in 2027.
XPeng Chairman He Xiaopeng said in April that pre-orders exceeded 7,000, at a price capped below 2 million yuan ($298,200 at 6.7076 yuan to the dollar).
ARIDGE was named in July among the first companies admitted to the CAAC’s eVTOL certification fast track.
