The core industry of low-altitude economy aims at a scale of 50 billion yuan, and Shanghai accelerates the construction of "Sky City"
2024-08-27
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Affected by the rapid development of the civil drone industry and the continuous deepening of the pilot work of low-altitude airspace reform, China's low-altitude economy has developed rapidly. Shanghai, the "first city of civil aviation", has also issued new policies to support the development of the low-altitude economy.
Recently, the Shanghai Municipal Government announced the "Shanghai Low-altitude Economic Industry High-quality Development Action Plan (2024-2027)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"), with the goal of reaching a core industry scale of more than 50 billion yuan by 2027, and taking the lead in the innovation and development of the global low-altitude economy. Together with the cities in the Yangtze River Delta, we will build the first batch of low-altitude inter-provincial aviation cities in the country, build a comprehensive demonstration and leading area for the national low-altitude economic industry, and accelerate the creation of a "Sky City" with international influence.
The low-altitude economy is based on airspace below 1,000 meters or 3,000 meters, involving drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, flying cars and other aspects, covering air commuting, logistics, tourism, urban management and other fields and economic application scenarios. In what aspects will Shanghai promote the development of the low-altitude economy?
eVTOL innovative enterprises account for about 50% of the country
This year, the low-altitude economy was included in the government work report for the first time. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Innovation and Application of General Aviation Equipment (2024-2030)", proposing that by 2030, my country's general aviation equipment will be fully integrated into all areas of people's production and life, forming a trillion-level general aviation industry market.
The "Research Report on the Development of China's Low-altitude Economy" released by CCID Consulting stated that according to estimates, the scale of China's low-altitude economy will reach 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, with a growth rate of 33.8%.
In the low-altitude economy, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL), also known as "flying cars", mainly target short-distance flights within and between cities. It is an emerging track based on the gradual development and growth of the domestic new energy vehicle industry, the comprehensive electrification of three-dimensional land, sea and air transportation, and the promotion of the development of new quality productivity.
As one of the earliest cities in China to develop low-altitude economy, Shanghai has a good industrial foundation in eVTOL, an important carrier of low-altitude economy. One of the key tasks of the above-mentioned Action Plan is to focus on the cultivation of leading enterprises, and put forward four tasks, including: cultivating leading enterprises of electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, and focusing on the development of 4-6-seater manned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft.
In the factory of Yufeng Future Aviation Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Yufeng Aviation") in Shanghai Jinshan Bay Area Hi-Tech Zone, a 2-ton manned electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft MATRIX1 (M1) original scale verification aircraft will be assembled in the near future. Yue Tingting, vice president of brand marketing and public relations of Yufeng Aviation, said that this M1 verification aircraft will be exhibited in the low-altitude travel exhibition area of the automobile exhibition hall of the 7th CIIE in more than two months.
As a Shanghai-based company, Yufeng Aviation has developed a variety of small and medium-sized industrial drones that are widely used in public security, infrastructure inspection and maintenance, marine inspection, emergency firefighting and other fields. In the second half of 2020, the company began designing large manned eVTOLs.
Yue Tingting said that the introduction of policies such as the "Action Plan" has a practical driving effect on their testing and operational development. "Only when the low-altitude economy really takes off can it become popular in the future."
She introduced that the company's M1 electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft adopts a composite wing configuration, has 20 rotors, a maximum load of 700 kg, and can accommodate 5 people. In the future, it will be mainly used to meet the needs of short-distance air travel within and between cities, shortening the two or three hours of travel time to about 30 minutes. In October last year, M1 completed its first flight in Shanghai, becoming my country's first independently developed and domestically produced 2-ton eVTOL.
Almost all of the leading eVTOL companies, including Yufeng Aviation, Fengfei, Shi, Volant, and Pantuo, are located in Shanghai and are known as the "Five Little Dragons of eVTOL".
The Shanghai Economic and Information Development Research Center recently wrote that the four basic elements for the development of the eVTOL industry are "sky, ground, people, and aircraft", namely airspace, infrastructure, professional talents, and industrial chain support. "Sky" means that the approval of low-altitude airspace routes is not easy, and there is currently a lack of some necessary infrastructure for eVTOL, and there are still challenges in the eVTOL supporting industrial chain and technology.
The article suggests striving for policy breakthroughs and trial implementation, promoting the linkage between technological innovation and manufacturing industrialization, and promoting the optimal allocation of industrial development factors, resources, and facilities. For example, in combination with the equipment needs in the fields of aviation emergency rescue, traditional operations, and logistics distribution, we should accelerate the promotion of unified standards and models to enhance the compatibility of eVTOL in different application markets. In terms of financial support, an industrial fund can be established to provide corresponding support at all stages and throughout the entire process of eVTOL research and development, testing and verification, and certification.
Scenarios drive industrial development
Demonstration application is an important way to promote the development of emerging industries. In addition to "air taxis", the low-altitude economy also has many application scenarios.
On a water platform next to the city beach in Jinshan District, Shanghai, a vertical take-off and landing fixed-wing drone "Toyoshu 90" took off steadily and flew to the Zhoushan Islands. About 20 minutes later, the "Toyoshu 90" carrying Zhoushan seafood landed on the water platform.
Sun Biao, sales director of Fengyi Technology in East China, told China Business News that the Fengzhou 90 UAV has a cargo compartment volume of 72 liters and a maximum take-off weight of 95 kilograms. It has a variety of payload-range options. It can fly 120 kilometers with a maximum load (referring to cargo) of 10 kilograms, and can fly up to 65 kilometers with a maximum load of 20 kilograms. It only needs a 10×10 meter flat ground to take off and land.
On May 28 this year, Fengyi Technology successfully completed the first flight verification from the East China UAV Base to Longhua Airport, and is gradually realizing normal operation. At present, they use the "Fengzhou 90" UAV to fly the cross-sea fresh cold chain transportation service from Zhoushan Islands to Shanghai Jinshan, and have achieved normal operation of 10 flights per day and 50 flights per week. In addition to fresh seafood, Sun Biao said that they will also launch drone delivery of medicines, luggage, documents and other services.
There are nearly 40 companies like Fengyi Technology in the Shanghai Jinshan East China UAV Base.
Xu Jinmei, deputy general manager of Shanghai Xinjinshan Century Aviation Development Co., Ltd., the operating entity of the East China UAV Base, introduced that as of now, the base has introduced a total of about 38 UAV industry chain companies covering manufacturing, application, materials, etc., with a planned total investment of 3.33 billion yuan.
As the first comprehensive test flight and industrial base for civil UAVs in China led by the government and supported by civil aviation, the East China UAV Base has 1,370 square kilometers of airspace, and has been approved for eight UAV logistics routes, including Jinshan-Zhoushan, Jinshan-Huaniao Island, Jinshan-Shengsi Island, and Jinshan-Longhua Airport, as well as a 1 square kilometer land test flight take-off and landing point, and two cross-shaped flight runways with a length of 800 meters and a width of 30 meters. The base has now built an East China UAV Industrial Park of about 50,000 square meters, equipped with the East China UAV Base Air Traffic Management System, which can provide UAV companies with airspace for large-scale flight tests.
Xu Jinmei said that by expanding the commercial operation scenarios of drones and improving the efficiency of logistics and transportation between islands, Jinshan District and the East China Drone Base are building a fresh cold chain logistics distribution center, based on the normalization of commercial drone logistics operations, to attract medium and large drone research and development and manufacturing companies to gather.
The Action Plan also proposes to speed up the construction of a "route network" and establish a low-altitude air traffic network connecting the five new cities, Hongqiao and Pudong International Airports and cities around the Yangtze River Delta. It is also necessary to speed up the construction of a "service network", establish a coordinated management mechanism for low-altitude flights between the military and the ground, and build a municipal-level integrated platform for the supervision and management of unmanned aerial vehicles and a flight service center.
(This article comes from China Business Network)
