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original title: low-altitude economy is poised to take off

on september 6, visitors visited the exhibition of new productivity innovation achievements of the "2024 low-altitude economic development conference" at the wuhu livable international expo center in yijiang district, wuhu city. photo by correspondent wang yushi

since the beginning of this year, the low-altitude economy has become popular. as a strategic emerging industry, the low-altitude industry includes both traditional general aviation and low-altitude production services supported by drones. at the 2024 national people's congress, "low-altitude economy" was written into the government work report for the first time. "low-altitude flight" is being fully integrated into people's production and life, and a new trillion-level market is opening up.

by 2023, the scale of the low-altitude economy will reach 45 billion yuan. in order to compete in the new track, anhui has fully leveraged its advantages as a national pilot province for airspace reform, seized opportunities and taken advantage of the momentum. it has currently gathered more than 300 companies including general aviation holding group, china electronics technology group corporation diamond aircraft, ehang intelligent, and yingliu aviation. it has initially formed an industrial structure with hefei and wuhu as the dual cores and chizhou, anqing, lu'an, xuancheng and other places as support points, and is accelerating the creation of a highland for the development of low-altitude economy.

"low-altitude sightseeing tours" are becoming a new fashion

what is it like to take a small plane for sightseeing in the air? many people have never tried it. with the development of the low-altitude economy, low-altitude tourism routes will become more and more popular.

on september 6, the provincial general aviation holding group opened two low-altitude tourist routes: hefei-wuhu and wuhu-huangshan.

sitting on a small plane, the city, villages, mountains and rivers under the thin clouds are clearly visible. the hefei-wuhu route takes off from feidong bailong airport, passes swan lake, anhui innovation hall, chaohu lake, yangtze river, wuhu yangtze river bridge, and finally arrives at wuhu xuancheng airport.

"the flight altitude is 2,000 to 3,000 meters, and we can see many famous scenic spots in anhui. we can see luogang central park not long after taking off from hefei." said the captain of the flight, guo haoyu. the flight is operated by a cessna 208b aircraft, and each flight can carry 6 passengers.

another route - the wuhu xuanzhou-huangshan tunxi low-altitude tourist route passes through nanling aili, moon bay, taohuatan, taiping lake, and huangshan scenic area. it is a very scenic low-altitude tourist route, and you can enjoy the huizhou and anhui styles along the way.

according to the "2024 anhui province low-altitude airspace route planning plan" approved this year, three more low-altitude routes will be added to anhui this year. a total of 21 low-altitude airspaces and 18 low-altitude routes have been approved in the province.

at present, anhui has planned and built a "transport + general" airport system, operates three general airports including feidong bailong, ningguo qinglongwan, and lujiang shiwan, built a class a general aviation flight service station, and plans to set up 54 low-altitude pilot airspaces and open 43 low-altitude routes, connecting the "three platforms" of provincial flight services, drone supervision, and aviation emergency rescue to ensure the safety and order of low-altitude flight activities.

by the end of 2023, anhui's general aircraft had flown nearly 9,700 hours a year, with a total of five low-altitude short-distance transport routes. drones had flown 1.5 million hours, up 17.3% year-on-year, ranking fifth among provinces nationwide.

"air car" accelerates layout

instead of going through traffic jams, you can travel short distances quickly by taking an "air car" called evtol (electric vertical take-off and landing vehicle). these "future world scenes" in movies may become a reality in the near future.

evtol is actually a helicopter, but it is much smaller than a traditional helicopter. manned evtol is purely electric-driven, has low noise, is cost-effective, and is more environmentally friendly. it does not require an airport runway and is a product that is more in line with the future urban air traffic system.

at the end of february this year, the world's first evtol cross-sea and cross-city air route took its maiden flight. the evtol "shengshilong" developed by fengfei aviation technology flew smoothly from shenzhen shekou cruise terminal to zhuhai jiuzhou port terminal, shortening the one-way 2.5-hour to 3-hour ground driving time to 20 minutes. the aircraft can carry 5 people and has a cruising speed of up to 200 kilometers per hour. it is expected to start manned flights in 2026.

how is anhui’s evtol layout going?

in order to ensure low-altitude flight, anhui province has clearly proposed to "encourage cities with conditions to explore and develop short-distance commercial transportation modes for new aircraft such as evtol". at the same time, a ground support facility network will be built to accelerate the construction of general airports and landing sites for various low-altitude aircraft to take off and land, alternate landing, parking, energy supply and other functions, and a number of small drone landing and take-off platforms, medium-sized landing and take-off sites, large landing and take-off hubs, evtol landing and take-off sites, helicopter landing and take-off platforms, as well as hangars, transfer stations, energy stations, fixed operating bases and aviation material support platforms will be built as needed.

last year, the e20 evtol independently developed by shanghai shi technology co., ltd. completed its first round of flight tests. "we have always focused on the commercialization of manned evtol and dedicated ourselves to creating safe and convenient air travel vehicles," said huang yongwei, founder and ceo of shi technology. the e20 evtol is designed to have a maximum range of 200 kilometers and a maximum speed of 320 kilometers per hour.

it is worth noting that the scaled-down demonstrator of the e20 evtol was unveiled at the 2023 world manufacturing conference, and cooperation has been carried out with enterprises in anhui.

nowadays, more low-altitude scene applications have been promoted. anhui has promoted the construction of the hefei luogang low-altitude integrated flight test area, completed the global commercial first flight demonstration of the eh216-s unmanned manned aircraft, and carried out flight demonstrations such as evtol, logistics distribution, and inspection, with a total of more than 1,000 flights in 2023. wuhu has explored low-altitude operation services such as "low-altitude + sightseeing tourism", high-altitude firefighting, and urban management, with an average of more than 2,000 flights per year.

infrastructure continues to improve

for low-altitude flight, infrastructure is more important, including not only safe and efficient aircraft, but also aviation infrastructure such as airports.

a number of general airports have played a key role. by the end of 2023, anhui has built and operated five general airports (qinglongwan in ningguo, bailong in feidong, shiwan in lujiang, beicheng hospital in changfeng, and yijishan hospital in wuhu); three general airports are under construction (dangshan, jin'an, and jieshou); and the preliminary work of a number of general airports in tianchang, yuexi, tongcheng, jixi, taihu, changfeng, and jingxian is progressing in an orderly manner.

in terms of low-altitude manufacturing, anhui has basically formed a trend of accelerating the development of the general aviation industry, with the drone and evtol industries as the main body. the industrial chain covers aircraft manufacturing, engines, avionics systems, aviation accessories, aviation materials and other links. in the field of general aircraft, enterprises represented by china electronics technology diamond aircraft, china science training aircraft and yingliu aviation have gathered; in the field of drones, enterprises such as seahawk uav and wuhu united aircraft have gathered; in the field of evtol, enterprises such as zero gravity and ehang intelligent have gathered.

the low-altitude economy has a promising future. the implementation plan for accelerating the cultivation and development of the low-altitude economy in anhui province (2024-2027) and several measures has drawn an "industrial blueprint" for the development of anhui's low-altitude economy: by 2025, the scale of the low-altitude economy will strive to reach 60 billion yuan, and the number of enterprises above designated size will reach about 180, among which one to two ecological-dominant enterprises will be cultivated; by 2027, the scale of the low-altitude economy will strive to reach 80 billion yuan, and the number of enterprises above designated size will strive to reach about 240, among which three to five ecological-dominant enterprises will be cultivated.

"low-altitude economy has great development prospects and is an important support for the development of new quality productivity." the relevant person in charge of the high-tech department of the provincial development and reform commission said that in the next step, we will focus on building hefei and wuhu as the core cities of low-altitude economy, create a number of distinctive and leading low-altitude economic development demonstration zones and demonstration cities, and build a development pattern of dual-core linkage, multi-point support, and integrated application. at the same time, we will continue to expand the "low-altitude +" application scenarios, explore the scenario opportunities of low-altitude products and services of the government and state-owned enterprises and institutions, sort out and form a list of application scenarios in the public service field, select a number of low-altitude application benchmark scenarios and application cases, and form a number of commercial and market-oriented application scenarios.

anhui daily reporter wang hongyi