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You may not have heard of the name Zhao Deli, but you must have seen the integrated land-air flying car that made a splash at the CES in Las Vegas, the United States in January this year. Its flight systems, including arms and rotors, can be completely folded and stored inside the car, and the highly technological smart cockpit can realize the free switching between land and flying driving modes. It comes from Xiaopeng Huitian, the largest flying car company in Asia, and the hero behind it is Zhao Deli.

Zhao Deli's entrepreneurial experience has all the elements of adventure.

Born for a dream. "I have sold insurance, worked as a security guard, and earned one million by cooking!" Zhao Deli, who was born in a farming family, plunged into the dream of flying machines with more than 20 million earned from selling model airplanes. At that time, he was close to 40 years old.

Passionism. He fell into a trough before he even took off - he was in huge debt, spent all his money and even risked his life to complete test flights.

A lucky guy on the cusp of the trend. After the successful test flight of the flying motorcycle, the company joined hands with He Xiaopeng, and with the support of capital, the "land aircraft carrier" integrated flying car stood on the cusp of the low-altitude economy.

From having 20 million in hand to being heavily in debt and finally to being the helm of a company valued at 1 billion US dollars; from unrealistic research on flying motorcycles with a "life-threatening" risk to successfully flying a flying vehicle around the Guangzhou Tower; from being a lone man who risked his entire fortune on his dream to leading a large team dedicated to changing the way humans travel; from a "migrant worker" from a rural area in Hunan to becoming a pioneer in leading "flying cars" and "air taxis" from movies to reality.

His story is a unique "cool drama". With his crazy and extreme love for flying, he made one "crazy" choice after another and turned the tide.

It's difficult to be Zhao Deli.

"Life-threatening" entrepreneurship

In the third year of opening the restaurant, Zhao Deli, who could have settled down and made a living, began to become "restless" and became fascinated with drones. He bought model airplanes, studied them himself, assembled them himself, and flew them himself.

When the seeds of the dream of flying began to grow wildly, playing with model airplanes could not satisfy Zhao Deli, so he had the idea of ​​making products. He switched from being a sales agent of model airplanes to research and development and production. "There were not many related products on the market at that time, so I gathered a team and developed the world's smallest fuel helicopter in 2010. After mass production, sales were also good, with sales of 20 to 30 million yuan a year," Zhao Deli told reporters.

In 2013, with more than 20 million yuan earned from selling model airplanes, Zhao Deli founded Huitian Technology Co., Ltd. Without any professional background or safe site, he started his exploration of flying motorcycles with 20 people.

In 2016, he gave the flying motorcycle he had built with great difficulty an oriental name - Jindouyun. Zhao Deli, obsessed with the dream of flying, gambled all his time, energy and money. At that time, his wish was simple - to fly.

The beginning of a dream is always accompanied by a touch of tragedy.

Zhao Deli, who stepped on the "somersault cloud", did not fly into the clouds as he wished. He took off again and again, and fell again and again, burning all his savings. He could only rely on "borrowing" to support his expensive dream.

"The period from 2016 to 2018 was the darkest time. I couldn't raise money. I used up all my credit cards, Huabei and Jiebei. All my employees left. Almost no friends came to me for fear that I would borrow money from them. I even became a negative example. My phone would occasionally ring, but it was the bank asking for debt." Zhao Deli described himself, "Those two years were like walking in a tunnel with no light in sight. I didn't know whether there was an abyss or a bright road ahead."

The obsession to fly still supports Zhao Deli to continue working hard. He gambles his entire fortune and "works hard" for his dream.

In 2018, Zhao Deli, who was not satisfied with test flying by means of counterweights, made up his mind to fly it himself.

A few days before the first flight, Zhao Deli returned to his hometown in Hunan to celebrate his mother's 70th birthday. "I didn't dare tell my family that I was doing this, because I couldn't let my mother feel uneasy on her birthday," Zhao Deli recalled.

The product was still immature and the protective equipment was extremely simple, so the consequences of personally testing the flight were imaginable. The worst fall was when Zhao Deli broke several toes. But for the sake of his dream of flying, Zhao Deli still went ahead and risked his life to personally find out the problems and promote product iteration.

A small factory in Zhuhai produced a special propeller for him. He did not contact the factory for three months. When he called the factory again, the factory owner said excitedly: "Dude, you are still alive. I thought you had fallen to your death."

Is it worth risking your life for an uncertain outcome?

"Worth it!" Zhao Deli's answer was brief and powerful. "Others may lose money when starting a business, but I may lose my life." In his opinion, no one could fly at that time, and the person who could "risk his life" could only be himself.

"Flying at a low altitude is not a big problem, but if we want to make a product and deliver it, the safety level must be improved." Zhao Deli admitted that risks had to be taken at that stage.

June 26, 2018, is a day Zhao Deli will never forget. He finally succeeded in flying. "I felt free, the wind blew through every pore of my body, and I felt like a bird, flying freely in the air," Zhao Deli told reporters.

Zhao Deli, who originally planned to give up after taking off, was eager to let the general public feel the joy of flying. He continued to research the product while thinking about investment and financing, looking for angel investors, and embarked on the road of pursuing commercialization.

Meet the Merchants

Before 2020, Zhao Deli, who was eager to "make money" for his dream, appeared on major TV stations many times as a grassroots inventor, folk scientist, and flying geek, earning meager appearance fees to support his team and maintain his dream of flying.

In the summer of 2020, He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, joined the company, marking a turning point in Huitian’s story.

Zhao Deli and He Xiaopeng, chairman and CEO of Xpeng Motors, met each other thanks to the introduction of Kuaishou founder Wang Xin. At that time, He Xiaopeng wanted to do "something challenging, such as building airplanes," so Wang Xin mentioned Zhao Deli, whom he met when he was playing with model airplanes in the early days. He Xiaopeng had also seen Zhao Deli's flying motorcycle video before.

In July 2020, He Xiaopeng visited for the first time. At that time, the Huitian team had just successfully developed a two-person version of the aircraft with four axes and eight propellers that could carry two people. Zhao Deli asked him, "Do you want to fly first or talk first?" He Xiaopeng said, "Fly first." Then Zhao Deli took him for a circle in the air, flying more than ten meters.

Shortly after the test ride, He Xiaopeng invested in Huitian Technology.

In September 2020, Xiaopeng Huitian was established, with He Xiaopeng as chairman and Zhao Deli as president as the founder; in October 2020, Xiaopeng Huitian moved from Dongguan to Guangzhou and started the research and development of Traveler X1 and X2, and achieved test flights in just half a year.

"After He Xiaopeng came in, I didn't have to worry about money anymore, so I could focus on making products over the years." Zhao Deli said that the two often chatted on the phone. The first time they called, they talked for more than an hour, talking about products, technology, and future possibilities.

Zhao Deli admitted, "I didn't have a commercial mindset before, and I had never led a large team. I learned organizational structure, product thinking, marketing organization, system processes, etc. from He Xiaopeng."

Xiaopeng Huitian, which is on the right track, has also ushered in more opportunities. In October 2021, Xiaopeng Huitian announced the completion of more than US$500 million in Series A financing, with a pre-investment valuation of more than US$1 billion; the Series B financing will start this year.

In January this year, Xiaopeng Huitian's integrated land, air and flying car entered the international stage and was officially unveiled at the CES 2024 exhibition; the next-generation split flying car "Land Aircraft Carrier" will open global reservations at this year's Zhuhai Air Show, with an estimated price of more than 1 million yuan, and is scheduled to be delivered on a large scale by the end of 2025.

From the initial flying motorcycle to the "land aircraft carrier" that is about to be delivered, the future modes of travel that Zhao Deli once imagined, such as "Sun Wukong's somersault cloud" and "Harry Potter's broom", are about to become a reality.

At present, favorable policies for the "low-altitude economy" are frequently issued, and the "air taxi" has obtained its first production license, and the industry's attention is rapidly increasing. The trillion-level low-altitude economy is ready to take off, accelerating from preliminary planning to large-scale commercial operations.

This time, Zhao Deli was once again at the forefront.