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Photographed by Chen Cheng and drawn by Zhai Chao

Securities Times reporter Chen Cheng

In early July, a drone departed from the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics International Innovation Port and safely delivered a document to the Ming Palace Campus of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. It took 24 minutes and covered a distance of nearly 40 kilometers. This low-altitude route, which currently has the longest flight distance in China and crosses the Yangtze River, thus achieved its first delivery.

According to statistics, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, has been approved to operate low-altitude airspace covering an area of ​​more than 900 square kilometers, with a total of more than 100 routes, including 29 low-altitude shipping and logistics routes. How did Nanjing "fly high" in the new low-altitude economic track? A reporter from the Securities Times recently conducted a survey in Nanjing.

Unlock more application scenarios

In midsummer, a Securities Times reporter came to the Nanjing Civil Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Operation Management Center located in Nanjing Pukou Hi-tech Zone. The relevant person in charge of the center pointed to a golden plaque engraved with "HD-JS-001" and told reporters: "The center applied to become one of the first 13 civil unmanned aerial vehicle test bases (test areas) in 2020 to help Nanjing's low-altitude economy 'take off'."

In the management center, the most eye-catching thing is a huge curved screen - on the screen, dozens of light spots are moving slowly along the set route.

"This is our low-altitude intelligent network platform. The light spots on the screen are the drones in flight. Click on the light spots to see the production model, filing information, and flight plan of the drones at a glance. Click on the relevant icons to query various information such as routes, drones, and aviation intelligence." The person in charge of the above-mentioned center introduced that the low-altitude intelligent network platform integrates 5G low-altitude networked communications, high-precision location services, large-scale multi-source monitoring, and low-altitude meteorological services. It is precisely relying on the low-altitude intelligent network platform that the management center can provide real-time supervision and protection for the flight activities of unmanned aerial vehicles within the coverage area of ​​600 square kilometers, becoming the "central nervous system" of low-altitude flights in Nanjing.

With the support of a powerful "central nervous system", the application scenarios of drones in Nanjing are constantly expanding, and the low-altitude economy is therefore "flying" higher. Since the completion of the first flight verification of drone medical blood transportation at the end of last year, the two routes from Nanjing Red Cross Blood Center to Pukou District People's Hospital and Pukou District Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital have been in regular operation, with an average of 4 flight missions per day, which has greatly shortened the delivery time of blood and other medical supplies and improved the efficiency of treatment.

"In Nanjing, Pukou District alone, where the center is located, has invested nearly 200 million yuan in infrastructure construction and the creation of various application scenarios, and has carried out various scenarios such as Yangtze River maritime inspections and logistics distribution." Staff at the management center introduced that the center has currently approved and is awaiting approval for a total of 40 routes, focusing on scenarios such as Yangtze River protection, medical supplies transportation, science and technology, culture and tourism, and low-altitude express delivery. Five major categories have been set up: low-altitude inspections, low-altitude express delivery, low-altitude medical supplies transportation, low-altitude sightseeing, and low-altitude buses.

More application scenarios have given rise to more special models.

In the Nanjing Civil Unmanned Aerial Test Area, a fixed-wing electric drone named "Feige" attracted the attention of reporters. This drone can reach a maximum speed of 130 kilometers per hour and has a flight time of 2 hours, making it the endurance champion among similar drones. It can perform detection and rescue tasks in complex terrain.

Another "Hongyan 30" low-altitude detection drone has broken through many international technical barriers. It can not only achieve centimeter-level fixed-point takeoff and landing at a high-speed flight speed of 30 meters per second, or 108 kilometers per hour, but its super wind resistance also enables it to come and go freely in typhoons of level 7 or 8.

The industrial ecology has taken shape

Nanjing’s confidence in building a low-altitude economy lies in its industrial chain advantages.

"Nanjing has a good industrial foundation for low-altitude economy. At present, the city's low-altitude economy has layout in key industrial directions such as low-altitude manufacturing, low-altitude security, low-altitude flight and comprehensive services." A relevant person in charge of the Nanjing Municipal Bureau of Industry and Information Technology told reporters. For example, in the low-altitude manufacturing industry, Nanjing has gathered high-quality enterprises in the field of complete machine manufacturing, such as AVIC Jincheng Unmanned Systems Company, Tuogong (Nanjing) Robot Agricultural Plant Protection UAV Company, and Nanjing Yiwei Electric Vertical Take-off and Landing Aircraft (eVTOL) R&D Company.

When we came to Yivite in Nanjing Software Valley, the reporter learned that this innovative enterprise, founded in January 2022, has always focused on the eVTOL segment. Just four months after Yivite was established, GEM-listed company Shangluo Electronics (300975) invested in the company to develop the eVTOL industry. At present, Yivite has completed the design, development and manufacturing of a number of medium and large drones, and the final assembly of the 5-person, 4-seat eVTOL prototype has also rolled off the production line.

Currently, the low-altitude economy is still in its start-up phase, and the competition among major cities for the low-altitude economy lies not only in the manufacturing of drones, but also in the management of airspace after the airspace is liberalized. The reporter found that in terms of airspace management, some companies in Nanjing are at the forefront.

At the end of June, on the occasion of its first anniversary of listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, Les Information launched the "Tianmu" series of products for low-altitude flight service guarantee. "Tianmu" is committed to connecting the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain and is the guardian and "brain" of the new generation of low-altitude flight. The series mainly includes four types of products: low-altitude flight management service platform, drone operation service system, airspace route planning simulation system and take-off and landing field intelligent management system. Among them, the core capabilities of the low-altitude flight management service platform cover the three aspects of "management, coordination and service", which will provide safe, precise, efficient, smooth, convenient and professional services for large-scale, high-density and multi-scenario operations, and fully guarantee the safety of the entire process of low-altitude flight.

Regarding the new products, Mao Yongqing, chairman of Rice Information, said that the company is actively leveraging its advantages in air and ground traffic management, focusing on low-altitude security, and building a low-altitude intelligent connection platform to provide services and guarantees for the government's low-altitude air traffic operation management and operators' low-altitude operations.

"As a city that started to develop low-altitude economy early on, Nanjing has abundant low-altitude resources and a solid research foundation in the field of civil unmanned aviation. Relying on famous universities and companies such as Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Rice Information, it has formed a certain development foundation in the fields of technological innovation, talent training, and industrial planning. The low-altitude economic industry ecosystem has been initially formed." Zheng Qiongjie, a researcher at the Nanjing Academy of Social Sciences, told reporters.

Support policies continue to increase

Seizing the "trend" and accelerating the competition for the "low-altitude city", Nanjing has good development conditions and factor reserves. At present, the city's low-altitude economic industries are mainly distributed in Pukou, Baixia, Qilin, and the Airport Economic Demonstration Zone, and have gathered hundreds of aerospace companies, of which 80% are industrial enterprises above designated size. Data shows that in 2023, the revenue of Nanjing's low-altitude economic-related industries will be nearly 3 billion yuan.

In order to fully stimulate the potential and start from "new", Nanjing held a low-altitude economic development conference in May this year, and simultaneously launched the "Nanjing Implementation Plan for Promoting High-quality Development of Low-altitude Economy (2024-2026)" and "Nanjing City's Several Measures to Support High-quality Development of Low-altitude Economy (Trial)" during the conference, and proposed that by 2026, the level of low-altitude economic development will be firmly in the first echelon in the country.

The policy support has also prompted related listed companies in Nanjing to show their talents.

According to Wind data, there are currently at least nine listed companies in Nanjing that are involved in the concept of low-altitude economy, including Laisi Information, Shangluo Electronics, Huashe Group, and Sujiaoke. Huashe Group said that the company had previously proposed to establish a pilot zone for low-altitude economic development in Nanjing, and the proposal was finally implemented at the Low-altitude Economic Development Conference. The company will play the role of "planner" in the construction of the pilot zone, providing scenario planning design and system integration solutions for the pilot zone. After the pilot zone is successfully built, Jiangsu and even the whole country can replicate the relevant experience.

Although Nanjing has taken the low-altitude economy as an important choice for developing new productivity and has continued to increase its efforts to cultivate it, the reporter learned that as the relevant policies on the low-altitude economy continue to be implemented, more and more cities are joining the battle for "flying cities". In Jiangsu Province alone, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou have recently released low-altitude economic action plans. Among them, Changzhou and Wuxi both proposed that the scale of the low-altitude economic industry will exceed 30 billion yuan by 2026, and Suzhou proposed to strive to build a national low-altitude economic demonstration zone by 2026.

“Low-altitude competition” has become a general trend. How can Nanjing compete to be in the first echelon?

At the Nanjing Low-altitude Economic Development Conference, Han Liming, member of the Standing Committee of the Jiangsu Provincial Party Committee and Secretary of the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee, gave the answer: "Nanjing will seize the opportunity and take advantage of the situation, adhere to the principle of 'market-oriented, rule-oriented, technology-based, application-oriented, and safety-based', follow the national industrial layout orientation and airspace safety management requirements, respect the laws of the industry, magnify the unique advantages, and strive to build a low-altitude economic innovation highland and service hub."

On this basis, Nanjing formally extends an invitation to the academic and industrial circles in the field of low-altitude economy. On the one hand, jointly build an innovation consortium, rely on leading enterprises, national laboratories, functional platforms, etc., to build a collaborative innovation system of "industry, academia, research and application", jointly carry out key core technology research in the fields of aircraft design and manufacturing, energy power, avionics and communications, and smart security, and accelerate the transformation of scientific research strength into industrial dividends. On the other hand, jointly cultivate an industrial ecosystem, fully support the landing of leading enterprises, focus on cultivating specialized and new enterprises, expand and enhance the upstream core parts industry, increase the layout of midstream complete machine manufacturing industries such as drones, eVTOL, and flying cars, vigorously develop new formats such as system integration, testing and certification, expand and strengthen downstream service support industries, and create two major advantage clusters of low-altitude manufacturing and low-altitude services.

At the same time, Nanjing proposed to jointly promote the entire service chain, expand the diversified application scenarios of "low altitude +", support universities in Nanjing to strengthen the construction of related disciplines, vigorously cultivate urgently needed talents, coordinate the construction of "four networks" including facility network, air network, route network and service network, and build a support system for the development of low-altitude economy.