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summary:Elements of the entire industrial chain of Shanghai's low-altitude economy are concentrated.

In Jinshan Industrial Zone, at the Yufeng Future trial production factory, the 2-ton electric vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing manned aircraft M1 is undergoing "fine decoration" and is scheduled to be unveiled in the automobile exhibition area of ​​the 7th CIIE in more than two months.

M1 focuses on short-distance air travel within and between cities, commonly known as "flying taxis". On August 18, Shanghai opened the country's first inter-provincial fixed-point low-altitude passenger route (Kunshan City Terminal-Shanghai Pudong Airport), using fuel helicopters as carriers, with a one-way flight price of 1,600 yuan. But Yue Tingting, vice president of Yufeng Future, thinks it is a bit expensive. She believes that in the future, with the large-scale expansion of Shanghai's "air taxi" business, especially the large-scale entry of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft eVTOL like M1, there is a lot of room for "flying taxis" to reduce prices.

Yufeng Future M1

In February this year, Fengfei Technology, also a Shanghai-based company, flew its self-developed 5-seat eVTOL from Shenzhen Shekou to Zhuhai Jiuzhou Port in just 20 minutes. If you take a ground express train, it will take 2 hours and cost about 400 yuan.

"In the future, the price of a flight is expected to be comparable to that of a ground train," said Yue Tingting.

Fengfei eVTOL completed the Shenzhen-Zhuhai cross-sea and cross-city flight

"Take a flight", 400 yuan for 20 minutes? This is not without basis. The reporter recently followed the Shanghai Low-altitude Economy Industry Interview Group organized by the Shanghai Municipal Government Information Office and the Municipal Economic and Information Commission and found that from the front-end material supply to the back-end product manufacturing and testing, the elements of the entire industrial chain of Shanghai's low-altitude economy are fully gathered, which is very beneficial to the expansion of the industry scale and cost advantages.

Autonomous control over materials is a trump card for Shanghai's low-altitude economy.For example, the M1 independently developed by Yufeng Future has a composite wing configuration, a maximum load of 700 kg, a cruising speed of 200 kilometers per hour, and successfully completed its maiden flight in October last year. In January this year, it was approved for airworthiness by the Civil Aviation Administration of my country. The three core links of the M1, namely composite materials, electric systems, and flight control systems, are all domestically produced, and its fuselage material is made of lightweight and high-strength carbon fiber from Shanghai Petrochemical.

It is understood that the density of carbon fiber is less than one-fourth of that of steel, but its strength is 7 to 9 times that of steel, and it has excellent corrosion resistance, and can be used for the "skeleton" and "skin" of aircraft. Li Peng, general manager of Shanghai Petrochemical's Carbon Fiber Division, introduced that after taking the lead in carbon fiber technology research in 2007, Shanghai Petrochemical spent ten years to sharpen its sword. By 2018, it finally became the first domestic company to break through the industrialization technology of 48K large-tow carbon fiber (each bundle of carbon fibers has more than 48,000 strands), and has now connected with the needs of many companies in the East China UAV base.

Large Tow Carbon Fiber

The advantage of the “three electrics” supply chain is the second trump card of Shanghai’s low-altitude economy.In the field of aircraft, there is an objective gap between my country and Europe and the United States. However, eVTOL is to traditional aircraft what new energy vehicles are to fuel vehicles. Since the industrial chain of eVTOL is highly similar to that of new energy vehicles, and my country, especially Shanghai and its surrounding areas, has a mature "three-electric" (battery, motor and electronic control system) supply chain, it will strongly support my country's overtaking in the field of aviation electrification.

The third trump card is that Shanghai dares to use scarce airspace resources for testing and application.In 2018, the East China UAV Base was established in Jinshan District under the leadership of the government. It currently has 1,370 square kilometers of airspace, and has been approved for eight drone logistics routes including Jinshan-Zhoushan, Jinshan-Shengsi Island, and Jinshan-Longhua Airport, as well as a 1 square kilometer land test flight take-off and landing point. It fully supports the research and development, test flights, and scenario application testing of various small, medium, and large drones, and has introduced a total of 38 drone industry chain companies covering manufacturing, applications, materials, etc.

The take-off and landing points of Dajinshan Island, Zhoushan Island and Shengsi Island in East China UAV Base form a golden triangle

Fengyu Shuntu, a subsidiary of SF Express, is a beneficiary. In October 2020, Fengyu Shuntu built a drone logistics island scene at the East China Drone Base. Among them, the seafood cold chain transportation route between Shengsi and Jinshan in Zhejiang has now entered normal operation, with Fengzhou 90 drones flying about 10 times a day.。Sun Biao, the head of Fengyu Shuntu in Shanghai, told reporters that in May this year, Fengyu Shuntu completed the first flight verification from the East China UAV Base to Longhua Airport. This means that it is feasible to transport live seafood directly from Shengsi to the tables of Shanghai citizens, and the whole journey takes about 3 hours. In addition, Shanghai also has open scenes such as Yangpu City Low-altitude Smart Logistics Distribution and Xuhui Riverside UAV Cluster Performance.

Fengyu Shuntu drone performs island logistics scenarios

Low-altitude economy refers to a multi-scenario low-altitude flight economy with a vertical altitude of less than 1,000 meters, which can be extended to 3,000 meters as needed, using manned or unmanned low-altitude aircraft to carry people, cargo and other operations. Shanghai got up early on this track. In the field of eVTOL alone, according to data from the Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology, Shanghai has gathered about 50% of the country's leading eVTOL innovative companies.

Yufeng Future's Yue Tingting believes that Shanghai has the C919 large aircraft and ARJ21 domestic regional aircraft, and has obvious advantages in the concentration of aviation industry talents; Shanghai has a concentrated capital, which is convenient for corporate financing; the Yangtze River Delta region has a developed economy and frequent trade exchanges, but traffic congestion, and a strong demand for efficient travel. In addition, Shanghai issued the "Shanghai Low-altitude Economic Industry High-quality Development Action Plan (2024-2027)" in July this year, all of which constitute Shanghai's low-altitude economy.“There is space for verification and testing, scenarios for application demonstration, and customers for purchase and use.”of great sincerity.

According to the reporter, there are currently 5 eVTOL companies in the country that have successfully completed their maiden flights. Except for Geely's Wofei Changkong, which is located in Chengdu, the other 4 are all in Shanghai. The above-mentioned eVTOL companies will achieve airworthiness certification as early as 2026 and start commercial operations. Jiang Jun, co-founder of Shanghai-based Time Technology, has calculated that after large-scale operation of manned eVTOL, the cost will be comparable to ground-based special car services. For example, from the Shanghai Pudong New International Expo Center to Suzhou Oriental Gate, a one-way trip of 100 kilometers takes 25 minutes, and the charge of 300 yuan per person is completely realistic.

The tilt-rotor manned electric aircraft E20

According to the action plan for the high-quality development of Shanghai's low-altitude economic industry, by 2027, Shanghai will have established a complete industrial system for the research and development, design, final assembly, manufacturing, airworthiness testing, and commercial application of new low-altitude aircraft, with the scale of the core industry reaching more than 50 billion yuan.